Structure of China’s Communist Party: party cells, decision-making process, concentration of power

This is the second in the South China Morning Post’s series of explainers about China’s Communist Party, in the lead-up to the party’s 100th anniversary in July. In this piece, Jane Cai explains how the second-largest political party in the world is structured.To get more news about 100th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party , you can visit shine news official website.
With about 92 million members and nearly 5 million party units across the nation, the Communist Party of China influences and oversees almost every aspect of life in China, from the government to the army, society and business.
To an outsider, the sheer scale of the Communist Party’s influence in China can be mind-boggling.
We explain the complex power structure of China’s ruling party, which in July marks 100 years since its founding.Party cells, which are the grass-roots party organisations, are the most ubiquitous units of the party. According to the party constitution, all business, social and army units on the ground with three Communist Party members or more have to establish a party cell.
The cells play an important role as “fortresses in battles” for the Party. They have a wide range of duties, including promoting the party’s ideology, informing the public of the party’s policies, implementing decisions from higher levels and organising cadres and non-party members – or the so-called masses – to take part in social work.
At the height of the coronavirus pandemic last year, over 4.6 million party cells went into emergency mode and helped set up quarantine areas in neighbourhoods, take people’s temperature and allocate daily necessities for people in lockdown.
Party cells also “educate, manage, supervise and serve” party members, ensuring members understand the latest instructions from the top. Another key duty is “membership development”: training young people “from the frontline of production and work” to become party members by helping them study party theories and write applications to join the party.
The power structure of the Communist Party may be likened, in a simplistic manner, to the form of a pyramid.
Spread across the country in villages, schools, neighbourhoods, companies and institutes, the party cells are connected by provincial-level committees.
From the members in the party cells, 2,200 delegates are elected into the National Party Congress, which is convened once every five years to represent the 92 million party members across the nation.The main function of the congress is to elect a Central Committee of about 200 full members and 170 lower-ranking or “alternate” members, most of whom have been men in key posts in the central government, regional party leaders, top military commanders and senior executives in state-owned enterprises.
The Central Committee‘s main job is to elect a new Politburo and its smaller, standing committee, where the real decision-making power lies. The Politburo Standing Committee, representing the apex of power in China, always has an odd number of members as decisions are made based on a majority vote. Currently, the standing committee has seven members, led by party chief Xi Jinping.At its core, the Communist Party’s decision-making process is based on the Marxist-Leninist idea of “democratic centralism”.
In theory, democratic centralism simply entails a “democratic and open discussion” on policies within the party followed by a voting process where the majority rules. The result is submitted to a higher level party committee for approval.
Once a decision is made, party members must uphold the agreed-on policies, with the minority subordinate to the majority, lower-level organisations to their superiors, individuals to their party organisations and local party committees to the Central Committee.