The Communist Party and the Law: An Outline of Formal and Less Formal Linkages between the Ruling Party and Other Legal Institutions in the People's Republic of China

The Communist Party of China (CPC or the Party) is the absolute power center in Chinese politics. Deng Xiaoping made the Four Cardinal Principles paramount in Chinese politics: upholding the socialist path; the people’s democratic dictatorship; the leadership of the CPC; and the Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought. Thus the Party stands aloof, assumes general oversight and coordinates all sides of the executive agencies, the National People’s Congress (NPC), the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), and other mass organizations. If the latter is the flesh, and the armed forces the bones, of the Chinese political body, the Party is undoubtedly its brain, main nerves and tendons. The Party leads and controls all other political (and not only political) organizations and institutions in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), allowing observers to use the once perhaps more fashionable term, “Party-State,” to capture China’s political reality. The Party has relinquished ideology as the sole or main source of legitimacy, and for almost three decades has been enjoying support through the “performance oriented” means of what appears to be a “benevolent one party rule.” The Chinese political system could thus also be seen as one of “good governance with Chinese characteristics.” The regime delivers steady economic performance and is consistent in terms of “consumer-satisfaction”; the people, in return, refrain from getting too angry about its peculiarities. This article does not directly address the rule of law in China or the eternal debate on its development and developmental patterns, but rather it addresses some peculiar aspects of it. The first part shall provide a brief account of how the Chinese Constitution and main statutory norms of public law formally “treat” the CPC. The second part outlines how the Party practically exerts its influence and authority over the Chinese political system, i.e., the actual functioning of the Party-State machine in the PRC.