How does the Chinese Government Work?

This post was the basis for a video essay of the same name. 

One of the things that makes the Chinese government so interesting is how different it is from our system here in the U.S.  And on a fundamental level, I think most Americans get this.  I'm going to zoom in on a few of those basic differences, and hopefully give a slightly deeper understanding of how the Chinese government really works.

The Chinese government can be understood as having three main branches, kind of like how we understand the U.S. government. The three branches in China are the Communist Party, the state (sometimes also called the government) and the military.  But unlike the American system, where the judiciary, congress and executive are designed to check and balance one another, in China, one branch holds significantly more power than the other two:  the Communist Party.

The Party is able to wield its power in a variety of ways. The top decision making body in the country is the Party's Politburo Standing Committee, made up of seven high ranking officials.  Although this body is theoretically supposed to report to the Politburo, the standing committee makes the final decisions on the most important central policies.

Another way the party exerts its influence is through the Organization Department.  The Party's organization department has control over all personnel appointments, promotions and demotions within the Party and the government bureaucracy, as well as in public universities and hospitals.  Imagine if the U.S. government controlled personnel appointments at the head of Walmart, AT&T and the other leading U.S. companies, as well as at Harvard, Yale and the other major American research universities.  This gets at the idea of the influence of the Organization Department.

On top of that, there are also party secretaries at every level of government, and they're basically the top dog in their jurisdiction.  So, for example, there's a Party secretary of the northeastern province of Heilongjiang, and then every county in the province has a party secretary, as well as every township, all the way down to the village level.  These local governments also have a government head that is not technically part of the party structure, but the party secretary has more power and authority than these governmental heads; the local party secretary makes the final important policy decisions.

The highest governing body in the government is the National People's Congress, but it's simply a rubber-stamp parliament that has passed every single piece of legislation that the party leadership has drafted and put to it.  The other major body in the government is the State Council, headed by the Premier, currently Li Ke Qiang.  The State Council is made up of various ministries and bureaucracies that do the day-to-day work of governing the country.  The top members of the State Council are often high-ranking members of the party as well.  This makes the line between the state council and the Party rather blurry, and is just another way in which the Party is effectively able to influence governance in the country.

As for the military, China's People's Liberation Army is under complete control of the Central Military Commission, which is part of the Communist Party.  In other words, the party controls the military.

To top it all off, the same person is at the head of all three of these branches:  Xi Jinping.  It is actually pretty normal in China for one person to hold the three separate titles of President of the Nation, General Secretary of the Party, and Chairman of the Central Military Commission; Xi is the third leader in a row to hold all of these positions at the same time.