Chinese Foreign Policy Essay Example for Free

Chinese Foreign insurance EssaySpecific portfolio. (See Collective Leadership.) To ensure caller control, the top-ranked members of the PSC mete out con soon as the heads of another(prenominal) parts of the political scheme. The top ranked PSC member, Party General escritoire Hu Jintao, for example, serves concurrently as head of the forces, in his capa urban center as head of Chairman of the Central force Commission, and as the head of State, in his capacity as State President. The second-ranked PSC member, Wu Bangguo, serves as Chairman of the depicted object volumes Congress (NPC), while the third-ranked PSC member, Wen Jiabao, serves as Premier of the State Council, and the fourth-ranked member, Jia Qinglin, heads the Chinese tribes Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and oversees the Partys relations with non- communistic groups. Portfolios for other PSC members include the propaganda system watchfulness of the Party bureaucracy and Hong Kong and Macau finan ce and economics Party discipline and the internal security system. 32 PSC members besides head Party Leading Small Groups (LSGs) for their policy beas. LSGs are secretive bodies intended to facilitate cross-agency coordination in implementation of Politburo stand Committee decisions. The content Security Leading Small Group and the Foreign affairs Leading Small Group, for example, are both headed by Party General Secretary Hu Jintao.The next highest decision-making proboscis is the full Politburo, which, with the suspension of the disgraced former Chongqing Party Secretary, Bo Xilai, now comprises 24 officials. In addition to the ball club members of the PSC, Politburo members include the heads of major departments of the Party bureaucracy, the two highest ranking officers in the Chinese military, State Council Vice Premiers, a State Councilor, and Party leaders from important cities and provinces. The current Politburo has only one female member. Because of its relatively u ncontrollable size and the geographic diversity of its members, the full Politburo is non involved in day-to-day decision-making. In 2011, it met octonary times, with its meetings often focused on a single major policy area or on preparations for major national meetings.According to the Partys constitution, the PSC and Politburo derive their power from the Central Committee, whose full and tack together members together elect the Politburo, Politburo Standing Committee, and Party General Secretary, and decide on the composition of the Partys Central Military Commission.34 In practice, incumbent top officials provide a list of nominees to the Central Committee, which ratifies the leadings nominees.35 The current nearly 400-member Central Committee (including alternates) is made up of leaders from the provinces (41.5%), central ministries (22.6%), the military (17.5 %), central Party organizations (5.9%), and stateowned enterprises, educational institutions, mass organizations suc h as the Communist Youth League, and other constituencies (12.4%).The National Peoples Congress (NPC)The third major political institution in China is the National Peoples Congress (NPC), Chinas unicameral national legislature. According to Article 57 of Chinas constitution, the NPC is the highest organ of state power. The Constitution tasks the NPC with overseeing the Presidency, the State Council, the State Central Military Commission, the positive Peoples Court, and Chinas national level public prosecutors office, the independent Peoples Procuratorate. In practice, however, the NPCs powers are severely limited, and the entire entity operates under the leadership of the Communist Party.The public theater of the NPCs work is centered around its ten-day-long yearbook full session, held every abut and attended by all of the NPCs nearly 3,000 deputies. The next full session, in March 2013, depart mark the start of a new five-year Congress, and is expected to approve a major lead ership transition, including a new President and Premier, and new Vice Premiers and State Councilors. At the annual full sessions, NPC deputies almost ever so vote to approve the enunciates, laws, and candidates put before them, usually by overwhelming margins, leading many observers to advert the NPC as a rubber stamp parliament. NPC delegates do occasionally push back, however.At the March 2012 session of the NPC, for example, a record 20% of deputies withheld their support from the Ministry of Finances budget report, reportedly in own over the Ministrys longstanding refusal to accept any NPC suggestions for revisions to the budget.47 (Unlike the U.S. Congress, the National Peoples Congress does not pass spending bills. Rather, at the annual full session each year, it votes to approve the budget presented by the Minister of Finance.) The NPC also makes revisions to the Premiers annual report on the work of the governing, the States most important policy document.Out of the pu blic eye, individual committees and the Standing Committee exercise more than meaningful influence. They shape legislating and can exercise a degree of oversight over government entities through inspection visits and committee reports. The power of individual NPC deputies to exercise oversight is largely restricted to the full to submit proposals advocating for reforms or demanding better implementation of laws or regulations, to which officials are required to respond in writing.Because the annual full session of the congress is so brief, much of the NPCs work is undertaken by its approximately 175-member Standing Committee, which meets about half a dozen times a year.48 Other important NPC bodies include lodge specialized committees and a legislative affairs work committee, all of which review and revise draft legislation before sending it to the Standing Committee or the full Congress for action. Like the State Council, the NPC has a Party organization embedded within it. The NPCs chairman serves on the Politburo Standing Committee and is currently the Partys number-two ranked official. NPC deputies are not directly elected.The Communist Party draws up lists of nominees, ground in part on potential nominees perceived loyalty to the Party. Thirty-five electoral units, most of them provincial-level Peoples Congresses, then vote upon the Partys nominees. The process is modestly competitive in that the Party nominates 20% to 50% more candidates than available positions and those with the most votes are elected to serve as NPC deputies. NPC election rules stipulate quotas for the representation of ethnic minority groups, the military, women, and other groups, including the Party itself. Because China rejects any separation of powers, the President, Premier, and other top leaders are all NPC deputies. 49 Deputies serve for five-year terms.The NPC is the uppermost layer of a nation-wide system of Peoples Congresses. These congresses are loosely linked togethe r in process and function. Only deputies for the lowest level of Peoples Congresses are directly elected. Traditionally, even at the lowest level, candidate lists are controlled by the Party, and elections are uncontested. Since 2011, however, China has seen a wave of independent candidates contesting elections for Peoples Congresses in city districts and townships. Most such candidates have faced forms of official harassment, including intrusive surveillance, extra-legal detention, intimidation of their supporters, and election irregularities designed to forbid them from appearing on ballots, but some have succeeded in being elected to office. rotCorruption in China is widespread and takes many forms, from lavish gifts and expensive meals bestowed on officials by those seeking favors, to bribes explicitly offered in exchange for permits and approvals, to embezzlement of state funds, exemption of friends and relatives from enforcement of laws and regulations, and the appointment o f relatives to lucrative jobs in stateowned companies. A 2011 report released by Chinas Central Bank estimated that from the mid- 1990s to 2008, corrupt officials who fled overseas took with them $120 jillion in stolen funds.28 The CCP uses its Central Discipline Inspection Commission (CDIC) to police its own ranks for corruption, an arrangement fraught with conflicts of interest.As noted above, the Party metes out its own punishments for wrongdoing by its members, and has sole discretion about whether to kick in members over to the state judiciary for investigation and possible prosecution. (See Weak Rule of Law and Ineffective Policy Implementation and Enforcement.) Critics charge that CDIC investigations are frequently politically motivated, even if they uncover real wrongdoing. Officials who keep on the right side of their superiors and colleagues may engage in large-scale corruption, while other officials may be investigated for lesser infractions because they have fallen afo ul of powerful officials.