Critically evaluate the relationship between the Chinese Communist Party and the state.

The CCP also directly control the state through infiltrate the government structure. ‘The CCP controls and directs the machinery of state through an interlocking system of party personnel and a structure parallel to that of the state government.’ Every government organizations in the state have the party committee inside. Both the party and the government structure are pyramidal. At the central level, When there is a organization at the government, there will be a corresponding organization in the party. The National People Congress and the National Party Congress mentioned in the above paragraph is one of the good examples of their structural relationship. At the provincial level, there are provincial party committee who responsible for supervision and provides direction on different area, like social and economic development. Below the provincial level is the local level, all basic units of the party are headed by a party secretary, who in turn is guided by a party committee. All of these organs function as ideology indoctrinator and the direct the work of the organization to ensure party rule. Another significant characteristic of the party-state relationship is that the army force is controlled in the hand of CCP. It is the CCP holding the military power. Also, the members of the Politburo occupy the important position of the government. Therefore, the party completely controlled the state in all level and all aspects.  

 Thirdly, CCP control the government through ideology education to the government official. The indoctrination of CCP ideology can ensure the official have the same ideology with the party. Therefore, they are more willing to implement the policy introduce from the party. The party rule can be smoothening.

The Evaluation of the party state relationship

        The last method mentioned may not be so significant today. The efficient control is mainly base on the first two methods. However, the rapid modernization has shaken the party leadership. Moreover, the party-state relationship caused many administrative problems. The following will evaluate the situation of the nowadays party and state relationship.

Firstly, the party members are actually having difficulties to lead the civil servant. In some cases, the party members are not professional enough to handle their leading position. For example, the general secretary may not understand the academic work in the university. They depend on the school president report. This kind of circumstance leads to two kinds of problem, the inefficiency and incapable for the party member to rule. Since the decision need the approval of the general secretary, the professional need to spend time on explaining their situation. This will lower the efficiency of decision process. Also, there is a strange situation that a non-professional, the party members, become the most important decision making power. In some situation, the party secretary may make unsuitable decision without enough understanding of the situation. These non-professionals may not be able to make a proper decision which suitable for the specific organs. Theoretically, this problem can be solved by employing people, who are both professional and ‘red’ (mean have a good party background). However, these people are hard to find, they are either professional or ‘red’. The party may eventually lose control of the state because they are unable to deal with the new and young professional.

Since the leaders on the high position of the state are usually the important leaders in the party, they need to deal with the state affair and the party affair at the same time. As a result, they cannot concentrate on the party affair. Besides the problem of high workload, the over centralization of power on the individual resulted in bureaucracy. Every decision-making needs to pass the general secretary. It is the general secretary leading the organization, not the central government itself. Therefore, people try to make relationship (in Chinese: 關係) those party members in order to be benefit from the government resources. This encouraged corruption of the party member.

Also, this resulted in the problem of accountabilities. The party members can intervene the government administration with their position as general secretary. They can change the law and order promulgated from the upper level government and can decide on what the department should do. The policy from the central government cannot be implement in the lower level government. Besides, the accountability between the party and the state become unclear, whether the committee or the cadre should be responsible for the work. Therefore, every organization competes for the jobs, which are beneficiary. Yet, no department willing to take responsibility for jobs, which have no benefit. In some cases, without the permission of the party member, the local government will not implement the order from the upper government. The power between the party and the state become unclear.

Moreover, the clumsy structure of the party and government leadership system caused a serious problem of inefficiency and misadministration. This is due to the serious overstaffing in the system and overlapping of the organizations. ‘There were 55,000 more central government units in 1990 that in 1984, and the number of ‘superfluous’ personnel in government departments has reached over 500,000’ The clumsy structure of the organization lead to low work efficiency. It caused the inconvenience for people because they do not know which department accountable for which area. Also, it caused economic burden on the government revenue. The government needs to pay for the party members and the civil servant.

The party power larger than the government power caused another problem. As Deng Xiaoping said, ‘party run things all and intervene in things all by enhancing party leadership; party is combined with politic and takes over power by practicing a unary from of leadership.’ (Chinese version: 加強黨的領導，變成了黨去包辦一切，干預一切; 實行一元化領導，變成了黨政不分，以黨代政) The authority of the government is weaken since its power is under the party. People may think that the party is the source of power, so they ask for the party, not the government, for resources. The party becomes overburden since they act as a state and a party at the same time.

Conclusions:

In China, the relationship between the party and the state cannot be separated. The CCP have the ultimate control over the government. The party controls the state by directly leading the government. However, there is many problem raise out in this control since the modernization of China. First is the managing of the professional. Second is the clumsy structure of the government. This resulted in inefficient policy implementation. Third is the shaking of government authority.

References:

1. Wang, James, Contemporary Chinese Politics: An Introduction, (prentice Hall International, 2002)
2. 劉智峰, 中國政治體制改革問題報告, 中國電影出版社