The People's Republic of China is a socialist country under the leadership of the Communist Party of China. According to the Constitution of the People's Republic of China and the state's fundamental law, the socialist system is the basic system of China; the people's congress is China's political system; and the form of ownership with the public ownership as the basis and multiple sectors of the economy existing side by side is China's economic system.
I. State Institutions

According to the Constitution of the People's Republic of China, China's state institutions are composed of the following sections:

1. The National People's Congress. It is China's supreme organ of state power. It regularly holds an annual plenary session, and is elected for a term of five years. Delegates are elected according to their present administrative regions through the universal suffrage. The national congress has regular and temporary special committees, which are led by the permanent committee, the Standing Committee of the People's National Congress, when the congress is not in session. Altogether eight national people congress have been held since 1954, when the first congress took place. The number of delegates to the ninth National People's Congress totaled 2,980. Li Peng is the incumbent Chairman of the present Standing Committee of the National People's Congress.

2. President of the People's Republic of China. The incumbent President of the People's Republic of China is Hu Jintao, and the Primier is Wen Jiabao.

3. State Council, i.e. the Central people's Government. It is the executive organ of the supreme organ of state power and the state's supreme administrative organ. The State Council consists of the premier, vice-premiers, state councilors, ministers of different ministries and commissions, the auditor-general and secretary-general. The premier is responsible for the State Council, and the premier is decided by the National People's Congress according to the president's nomination and appointed and removed by the president. At present, the incumbent premier of the State Council is Zhu Rongji, and vice-premiers are Li Lanqing, Qian Qichen, Wu Bangguo and Wen Jiabao.

4. The Central Military Commission of China. It is the supreme military leading organ, leading and commanding the country's armed forces. The National People's Congress elects the chairman of the Central Military Commission of China. The incumbent chairman is Jiang Zeming, and vice-chairmen are Hu Jintao, Zhang Wannian and Chi Haotian.

5. The Supreme People's Court. It is the country's highest judicial organ. The president is elected by the National People's Congress and the incumbent president is Xiao Yang.

6. The Supreme People's Procuratorate. It is the country's highest procuratorial organ. The procurator-general is elected by the National people's Congress and the incumbent procuartor-general is Han Zhubing.

Apart from the central state institutions mentioned above, people's congress and people's government in the localities and the autonomous minority nationality areas are also components of China's state organs.

II. Political Parties and Organizations, Political Consultative System

1. The Communist Party of China, which was founded in July 1921 in Shanghai, is China's ruling Party. The Constitution has stipulated the CPC leading position in the country. In the state leading system, however, the Party cannot substitute for the government's functions. The Party carries out activities within the scale of the constitution and law. The Party has more than 58 million members. The incumbent general secretary of the CPC Central Committee is Jiang Zemin.

2. The Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). The system of multi-party cooperation and consultation under the leadership of the Communist Party of China is the basic political system. CPPCC is a manifestation of this system, and CPPCC consists of different political parties and groups, people's organizations and patriotic democratic personages. Its major function is to follow the principle of cooperation between the Communist Party of China (CPC) and different democratic parties and personages in discussing key state political principles, and participating in government affairs. According to the regulations, CPPCC has national committee and standing committee, and the delegates of the CPPCC is elected for a term of five years. Most of the CPPCC members are political activists, social celebrities, experts and scholars. The ninth CPPCC National Committee has 2209 members and the incumbent chairman is Li Ruihuan.

3. Non-communist parties with a general designation of democratic parties: the Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang, the China Democratic League, the China Democratic National Construction Association, the China Association for Promoting Democracy, the Chinese Peasants and Workers Democratic Party, the China Zhi Gong Party (Public Interest Party), the Jiu San (September 3) Society, and the Taiwan Democratic Self-Government League. All the democratic parties participate in government and political affairs, and enjoy rights of political freedom and organization independence.

4. Major national organizations: the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, the Communist Youth League of China, the All-China Women's Federation, and the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, etc.

III. Laws and Jurisdiction

China's law standard includes the state's fundamental law, basic law, laws, administrative laws and regulations and local laws and regulations.

Being the legislative body, the National People's Congress (NPC) formulates the state's fundamental law, basic law and laws. All the administrative laws, regulations, resolutions and orders, issued by the State Council, and local laws and regulations, issued by people's congresses of different provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities and special economic zones, have the legal effect.

The "Constitution of the People's Republic of China" was promulgated in 1954, and reissued in 1975, 1978 and 1982 after its revisions.

Court and procuratorate, which are the main judicial organs in China, consist of the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuatorate and local people's courts and procuratorates, each independently exercising judicial authority and procuratorial power. Local court consists of the higher people's court (at provincial level), intermediate people's court (at prefecture level) and county (district) court, and the local procuratorate can be divided into procuratorates and sub-procuratorates at provincial, prefecture and county levels. A people's court carries out the public judicial system and two systems of final adjudication to enable defendants to have the right to defend themselves.

IV. Administrative Divisions and local Organizations

The provincial administrative unit is the highest local administrative division directly under the jurisdiction of the China State Council. It consists of province, autonomous region and municipality. At present, China has 22 provinces (except for Taiwan), five autonomous regions and four municipalities. County is China's basic administrative division. Prefecture or prefecture-level city under the jurisdiction of a province is an administrative division between province and county. Town under the jurisdiction of a county and township is the basic administrative division in the vast countryside.

When it is necessary, the state establishes Special Administrative Region. There are now the Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong and the Special Administrative Region of Macao.

Local city can be divided into a city under the jurisdiction of a province or a county-level city. In recent years, a number of regional central cities have replaced the prefectures, where the organizations sent by provincial government were located, and become prefecture-level administrative units. Such a city under the jurisdiction of the province usually has several counties or county-level cities. By the end of 1998, the country had 331 prefectures and prefecture-level cities, 2,216 counties and county-level cities. Of total 668 cities in China, four are under the jurisdiction of the central government, 227 prefecture-level, and 437 county-level.

According to the constitution, people's congress and people's government at the levels of province, prefecture (or city), county and township is a local organ of state power and an executive organ of power.

City where the provincial government is located is called the capital. Every province, municipality and autonomous region has its own abbreviation, which has been used for a long period of time in history and is still in use.