Reform of the Political Structure

It refers to, based on the premise and goal of adhering to and improving the socialist political system, reform and improve the existing problems and deficiencies in the current specific leadership systems, organizational forms, and work methods of the Party and the state. Since the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh CPC Central Committee, while carrying out socialist economic reforms, China has also carried out political reforms. Deng Xiaoping's speech on “Reform of the Party and State Leadership Systems” in August 1980, is a guiding document for the political system reform in China. The 13th CPC National Congress held in November 1987 passed the overall plan for political system reform.The disadvantages of the original Party and state leadership systems are mainly “bureaucracy, excessive concentration of power, patriarchy, lifelong system of cadre leadership positions, and various privileges”. They hinder or even seriously hamper the exertion of the superiority of socialism, and must be reformed to meet the urgent needs of modernization. The overall requirements of China’s political system reform are: to adhere to the organic unity of the Party’s leadership, the position of the people as the masters of the country, and the law-based governance, to adhere to the path of socialist political development with Chinese characteristics, to expand socialist democracy, build a socialist country ruled by law, and promote socialist political progress, with guaranteeing the position of the people as the masters of the country as the fundamental, and with enhancing the vitality of the Party and the state and mobilizing the enthusiasm of the people as the goals.

The specific goals are to uphold and improve the system of people’s congress, the system of multi-Party cooperation and political consultation under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, the system of ethnic regional autonomy, and the system of grassroots mass autonomy, improve the Party’s leadership and governance, improve democratic systems, enrich democratic forms, ensure that the people implement democratic elections, democratic decision-making, democratic administration, and democratic supervision in accordance with the law, give play to the important role of the rule of law in national governance and social management, maintain the unity, dignity and authority of the legal system, and ensure that the people enjoy extensive rights and freedoms in accordance with the law. The basic principles of China’s political system reform include: adhere to the leadership core role of the Party in exercising leadership with a holistic view and coordinating all parties, improve the Party’s scientific governance, democratic governance, and law-based governance level, and ensure that the Party leads the people to effectively govern the country; insist that all power in the country belongs to the people, improve democratic system, enrich democratic forms, broaden democratic channels, and ensure that the people implement democratic elections, democratic decision-making, democratic administration, and democratic supervision in accordance with the law; fully implement the basic strategy of governing the country by law, continue to promote the process of scientific legislation, strict law enforcement, judicial justice, and observance of law by all, promote the institutionalization, standardization and proceduralization of socialist democratic politics, provide political and legal guarantees for the long-term stability of the Party and the country, and consolidate and develop a democratic, united, lively, stable and harmonious political situation. The reform of the political system must place institutional improvements in a prominent position, give full play to the superiority of China's socialist political system, actively learn from the beneficial achievements of human political progress, and never copy Western political system models.

In 2012, the 18th CPC National Congress proposed that the political system reform is an important part of the comprehensive reform in China, and we shall continue to actively and steadily promote the political system reform. It is emphasized to place institutional improvements in a prominent position and give full play to the superiority of China's socialist political system.

In 2013, the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee passed the “Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Several Major Issues of Comprehensively Deepening Reform”, and proposed that the overall goal of comprehensively deepening reform is to uphold and improve the socialist system with Chinese characteristics and promote the modernization of the national governance system and governance capabilities. Specific measures were proposed to deepen the reform of the political system from three aspects: strengthening the construction of socialist democratic political system, advancing the construction of the rule of law in China, and strengthening the power operation restriction and supervision system. In 2014, the 4th Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee passed the “Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Several Major Issues Concerning Comprehensively Advancing the Law-based Governance”, which proposed: to comprehensively advance the law-based governance, the overall goal is to build a socialist law-based system with Chinese characteristics and a socialist country ruled by law. That is, under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, adhere to the socialist system with Chinese characteristics, implement the theory of the law-based governance with Chinese characteristics, and form a complete legal norm system, an efficient law-based enforcement system, a strict law-based supervision system, and a powerful law-based guarantee system, form a sound inner-Party legal system, adhere to the joint advancement of law-based governance of the country, law-based exercise of state power, and law-based administration of government, adhere to the integrated construction of a law-based country, a law-based government, and a law-based society, realize scientific legislation, strict law enforcement, judicial justice, and observance of law by all, and promote the modernization of the national governance system and governance capabilities.