


The nomenklatura

Vertical meets horizontal

Who really holds the power in China?

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Who really holds the power in China? -- If the writer means the single person, then obviously it is neither the President, nor the Prime Minister, and even not the Party Secretary, but the Chairman of the Party Central Military Commission.

Deng Xiao Ping was the President of China's Bridge Club as well as the Chairman of the Party Central Military Commission. In 1989, he could convene a private gathering at home to sack then Party Secretary Zhao Ziyang (Zhao was an absentee).

After 63 years, CCP is still in the stage of a "revolutionary party" which its stalwarts have a strong sense of insecurity who need to cling on the gun barrels and let it triumph over all other government apparatus.

Given that so many SOEs are affiliated with PLA, China, like U.S., is also a military-industrial complex.

Anyway, the "elected" delegates to the National People's Congress work hard and may need to see Chiropractic after conference meeting because they constantly have to raise one hand to support whatever law is proposed.

The delegates for the Chinese Political Consultative Conference (which meeting is held at roughly the same time with the NPC) fare better because most of the time they use both hands to clap and applaud.


The Chinese word for the 2 dimensional hierarchy is Tiaokuai.

But even this misses the 3rd dimension, the party.

X is the local hierarchy

Y is the state hierarchy

Z is the party hierarchy

Locals can't over see anybody due to rank.

State can't over sees the local government due to regionalism.

The party over sees all but end up over seeing nobody due to complexity.

And nobody over sees the party since the party leads the state.


…power grid is a tangle of interlocking entities, overlapping vertical and horizontal lines of authority, and complex interplay …

Sounds like the human brain.




Sounds like the human brain.


Connect The Dots

"Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne,
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie,
One ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie."

— The Lord of the Rings, Epigraph


The World knows more about the power structure of Middle Earth than of the Middle Kingdom. But one is far more important to your future.

Chinese leadership lines are as impenetrable as the Soviet Politburo.


This is a very good view into the heart of CHinese corruption and how well organised it is. Thanks TE

Lu Junhua

The national people's congress is the genesis of government powers. The state council acts as its executive branch. Yet the state council outweigns the national people's congress in the bureaucratic hirarch. That is manifested from the seven men's line-up, where Li comes immediately after Xi and is followed by the rest.

I'm sorry to say that both the supreme court and the supreme procuraterate are forgotten in that graph as well as in reality.

The PARTY dominates as the leading party, and takes most of the posts of the government. Thus faciliates the party to play the role as a coordinator when vertical or horizontal conflicts emerge.

Lu Junhua

This ariticle gives us an in-depth survey of china's upper-level government powers.

We have just celebrate the 30th anniversary of the constitutional law of china on the day of dec. 4th. I strongly recommend close study of the constitutional law to those who are intereste in chinese government structures.

In any country where the power is divided both vertically and horizontally, it is hard to say which single person or persons hold the overwhelming power.

trisul27 in reply to Lu Junhua

Do you mean things like this:

"Article 2. All power in the People's Republic of China belongs to the people. The organs through which the people exercise state power are the National People's Congress and the local people's congresses at different levels. The people administer state affairs and manage economic, cultural and social affairs through various channels and in various ways in accordance with the law."

The preamble is even more informative:


I might be wrong, I am no expert, but it seems to me that it makes more sense to study the Party, where the real power is, than the Constitution, which looks like window dressing.

Lu Junhua in reply to trisul27

chinese constitution is deemed as declaration of the ideal status of the people and the government.
the articles of the constitution are not intended for judicially applying to individual cases.
according to the constitution, the NPC should stand out to settle down the vertical or horizontal disputes. but this is not the case. NPC is incapable to fullfil its constitutional duties due to its large number of absent-minded representatives.
as a result, the disputes are referred to the PARTY for final solutions. of course, please remember that the PARTY's leadership is honored in the CONSTITUTION.

Wim Roffel

That map of power made me ponder how China could have a transition towards democracy. In the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia the demise of the party had major negative effects as there were no civilian institutions to take over its tasks.

ztoa789 in reply to Wim Roffel

No, there is, the rich, the big crops, and THEIR MEDIA, like in west.

Oh, I forgot, the rich are part of people, therefore, a government of the rich is the same as a government of the people.

Sandaman in reply to ztoa789

more than 100 million Chinese are living under poverty line $1,000 per year,
while one family of Wen Jiabao
amassed US$2.7 billion, as one of those people.
Chinese dream
Chinese reality?


This is normal in China. You can only find little information from the formal organization chart. The useful information is from "guanxi" network, where you can observe the true powerful figure.


An objective review of power in China is not possible in an article imbued with class antagonisms. The answer to the rhetorical question in the title is that power in China rests in the Communist Party of China and its different departments. The party has cells in every organ of power and state enterprises. Now they are also expanding to private enterprises. Policy is made by the party and enforced by its different departments. Their goals and objectives are clearly laid out in their convention and group reports. No mystery there.


"Vertical meets horizontal, Who really holds the power in China?". In my view, the Economist should be more interested in China's high speed railway plans. By 2020, China would have completed four vertical and four horizontal high speed lines linking all cities with a population of 500,000 people. This will have a major impact on the entire Chinese economy and improving the peoples' livelihood. It should be remembered that China's success in becoming the second largest economy in the world is mainly due to its willingness to spend massively in infrastructure construction during the past sixty years.

Jean Michel

Too bad the western media and the western countries cannot understand Chinese politics. They make make some efforts and hopefully they will succeed. One thing is certain. Chinese foreign policy is not as cride as western foreign policies. The latter consist in invading and bombing other countries; kill and torture their inhabitants; imposing sanctions on other countries; and support and finance terrorists groups to topple foreign governments. Chine foreign policies, on the other hand, are more subtle and beneficial to all countries.

ztoa789 in reply to Jenkins Ear


Do you want evidence that western media lied about what happened in Tibet in 1950s?

I don't understand, you people think like children :

Two adults, A and B, stand in front of a boy, the boy doesn't believe A for some reason, so he believes in B unconditionally.

Jenkins Ear in reply to ztoa789

Yes, its all a western conspiracy designed to keep China down. The west invented 'The Great Leap Forward' and 'the Cultural Revolution' and 'Tianamnen Square protests' . And the west are the ones inciting young monks in Tibet to burn themselves alive regularly.

I don't believe in anything unconditionally. I receive my news and I read history from a variety of sources. I'm lucky enough to live in a city in China that isn't behind the 'Great Firewall of China'. The 'West' doesn't block search terms on the internet, nor does it have anywhere near as a sophisticated Propaganda department as the CCP.

There is such a large trust issue in the mainland, that people flock here to HK everyday to buy 'Baby Milk Powder' and to give birth illegally in our hospitals. But I'm sure that's all a Western conspiracy....

ztoa789 in reply to Jenkins Ear

Your post is proof of having been brainwashed.

First, you can ask any Chinese when was the last time he read people's daily. Propaganda works only if people trust it, which is true on "free" media, not in China. Chinese people get their information mostly from internet.

Two, did it ever occur to you that most disasters under authoritarian system happened under one-person dictatorship, which is never part of socialism or communism?

Three, you are completely clueless what Chinese were fighting for in6.4. I can say it because I was a participant of it and the protest in 1986.


Who really holds the power of China? This is a tough question for people, you may say some leaders of China, actually, they're not, politic is not as easy as someone think, in this field, no one have absolute power, the same time, there are complex interest groups which sometimes can influence the decision-making of the central-government, the most interesting thing is some leaders of the government also involved in the group. So.......


Who really holds the power in China?
Vertical meets Horizontal like so:
J.Xi K. Li D.Zhang Z. Yu Y.Liu G.Wang G.Zhang


I've been a student of international affairs and domestic politics in both the USA and PRC since the mid-1960s. I spent a lot of time in the last year watching what was going on in the US election and in China's changing of leadership at the national, provincial and local levels. When you look objectively at the accomplisments of the two systems and the candidates involved; I think you have to admit the Chinese, although far from perfect, is doing a better job of taking care of its people than the USA is. The bottom line: China needs a bit more democracy to go with its meritocracy; and the USA needs a lot more meritocracy to go with its democracy. It seems to me that China's biggest danger is its ecological environment and infrastructure falling apart; whereas in the USA the danger is in our ecological environment and social infrastructure falling apart.

criticalobserver in reply to aztec69

All Chinese leaders regard the improvement of the Peoples' Livelihood as their main objective. Thus the task of the new leadership is to ensure that China's per capita GDP will be doubled that of 2010 by 2020 which is regarded as the yardstick of a 'Xiaokang'(a relatively prosperous) society. The Chinese press is already pointing out that this is barely 3,000 days away and the 'countdown' is in progress. May I ask how many countries in the world have such a 'can do' leadership ?

aztec69 in reply to criticalobserver

No. It is obvious from the lives of Mr. Bo and Mr. Wen that some Chinese leaders have regarded the improvement of their own, not the People's Livelihood as their main objective. This is hardly unique to to the Chinese, so don't take it personally or ethnically. Sometimes it isn't how fast something gets done as how well it gets done. China, like many fast-rising states, tries to do too much too fast. Infrastructure problems are a result (e.g. The Bird Nest is already collapsing, along with a never-ending list of highways, bridges, etc. Again, this is not unique to China. If you carefully read the history of the US Transcontinental Railroad you will discover that the only parts of the track and railroad beds that didn't have to be rebuilt within a few years were the parts that ran through the High Sierras of California. Those tunnels, etc. were built by Chinese workers and are basically unchanged today. There is another way, unfortunately many governments today reject it. In the early 1950s, about the same time as Mao was consolidating his power, The Netherlands was devasted by a horrible water disaster (think of what would happen if the Three Gorges Dam collapsed?) caused by Mother Nature. The Dutch said, simply, it will never happen again. Read up on the history of the great water barrier they built to protect their country. The established a simple goal. Then they trained engineers to achieve it. Then they commited the resources to make it happen. And then they did it.The goal was a system that would last a minimum of 400 years. It probably will, although it may be under water by then if the world doesn't do something about global warming. The First Law of Accounting also applies, if you're familiar with that. I have worked with Chinese people for years and their efforts on their own behalf have always amazed me. However, I would no more give the Communist Party credit for what they have achieved than I would give the Democratic or Republican Parties for what the USA has achieved. Thanx for your thoughts.

yasnaya in reply to criticalobserver

None and there is no need to work hard once you are elected. With the legitimacy of the electorates, you can fly here and there on Air Force 1 like a gull while the losers of the American Society live in tent cities. Welcome to the Land of the Free. Free is starve and live in penury that is!

criticalobserver in reply to aztec69

I still hold the view that the major objective of Chinese leaders is to improve Peoples' livelihood. If we examine the achievements of the Hu/Wen administration over the past ten years, we find the following:

1. Abolishing agricultural tax for farmers.
2. Rural children receive free education for nine years.
3. Agricultural production increased annually for nine consecutive years.
4. Construction of basic infrastructures that benefit the population.
5. Massive investment in education and research and development

The above gives some typical examples of the contribution by Chinese leaders.

Daveycool in reply to aztec69

The idea that politicians should put their personal interests below those of their constituents is crazy, though popular. Even if you find one guy who is nuts enough to do that, this idea is not a sustainable one. Better to design a system where society benefits when people act in their own selfish interest (put simply a win-win situation) than one where one party benefits from the pain of others (win-lose).


Nice article,
I like the graphic but it would be nice see how each body is chosen, which are administrative vs executive.
Also the NPC and the National Congress of the Communist Party of China are actually picked/filtered through local/regional indirect election process. The graphic made it seem that the standing committee picked the NPC

Batting Rabbit

HMS Argus was the world's first carrier that could launch and land aircraft in 1918. The first experimental take off from a ship happened even earlier, in 1911. Now it is 2012, 101 years later. The Chinese are about 100 years behind on this. Perhaps it would be better if they didn't act so proud about their new carrier. And perhaps other countries shouldn't be so afraid.

yasnaya in reply to Batting Rabbit

You don't know half the story ignoramus. Taking off from HMS Argus in 1918 and from the Liaoning in 2012 is a world of a difference. The only thing is that ignoramus like you don't see it. Believe me the Pentagon do and they are busy making contigency plan for this!


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