China's Communist party CCP vs National People's Congress NPC. How run?

[Warren D Smith]

It appears that in China, they have a "democratic" government and
the pre-eminent body is the NPC, elected every 5 years by a multilevel approval
scheme with each level electing the one above and the bottom (local)
level directly by people.

However in many respect the CCP not the NPC holds the real power and
when there is an important decision or appointment to be made, the CCP sends
the NPC recommendations for their "consideration." As far as anybody
I've read knows, those always or almost always are accepted. The bodies
controlling the military, intelligence, police, are 100% CCP members.
The NPC contains some CCP nonmembers, either from the 8 rival parties
(all 9 parties were set up in 1949 on founding) or not from any party,
but mostly are CCP members, at least at the highest levels.

Now far as I can tell, China sort of has two parallel systems of
government, kind
of like a government and a shadow government.

For all or most of the major official governmental policy-making bodies,
there is a similar "shadow" body that is part of the CCP.
The shadow bodies are mainly regarded as running things behind
the scenes.

So for example the NPC holds a meeting every 5 years.
The CCP's internal congress also holds a national meeting every 5 years.
The NPC is elected via a multilevel scheme each 5 years.
The CCP also holds its own internal elections, also via
its own multilevel scheme, every 5 years.
The NPC also elects from inside itself a "standing committee"
which meets every 2 months and does most stuff (the full NPC
only meets every 5 years hence does little).
The CCP also has its own "standing committee" which holds most of the power.
You see the pattern. The shadow body is part of
the CCP while the official body has to do with the NPC.
The bottom level NPC elections are by the people aged>=18, universal suffrage,
or anyhow the laws say they are.
But the CCP bottom level elections are voted in only by CCP members,
not by all the people. CCP members are about 7% of the people (which still
is enormous).
To enter the CCP there is an application process involving writing an essay,
being a "probationary member" for about 2 years, swearing an oath;
members must pay dues, do work. They can attend meetings, see documents
that nonmembers cannot see. Want to get educated?
There are certain schools only accessible to CCP members.

Here is the constitution of the CCP (2017 english translation):
http://rangevoting.org/ChinaCommunistConst2017.pdf
Here is the constitution of China (1982 English translation):
http://en.people.cn/constitution/constitution.html

Official election methods are not described (or only very vaguely) in
China's constitution, but are explained in electoral laws:
1 http://rangevoting.org/ChinaElectLaw1982.html
2 http://rangevoting.org/ChinaOrganicVill.html
The NPC's approval-voting multilevel scheme is explained in (1).

Concerning the CCP's internal elections, excerpts from CCP constitution follow:
art.10 CCP const'n:
Leading bodies of the Party at all levels, with the exception of
their dispatched
representative organs and the leading Party members groups in
non-Party organizations, are generated by election.
art.11:
The election of delegates to Party congresses and members of Party
committees, at all levels, shall reflect the will of the voters.
Elections shall be held by secret
ballot. Lists of candidates shall be fully deliberated and discussed
by Party organizations
and voters. The method of nominating a greater number of candidates
than the number of
persons to be elected may be adopted to directly carry out a formal
election, or this method
may first be used in a preliminary election to generate a list of
candidates for the formal
election that is to follow. Voters have the right to inquire about
candidates, request a
change in candidates, decline to vote for any of the candidates, or
choose to vote for
someone who is not a candidate. No organization or individual shall in
any way compel a
voter to vote or not vote for a candidate.
If the Party Constitution is thought to have been violated in any
way during the
election of a delegate to a local Party congress at any level or to a
Party congress at the
primary level, after investigation and verification, the Party
committee at the next level up
shall issue a decision to declare the election invalid and take
appropriate measures, and
report this decision to the Party committee at the next level up to be
checked and approved
before it is formally announced and implemented.
art.19:
The number of delegates to the National Congress and the procedures
governing their
election shall be determined by the Central Committee.
art.22:
The Central Committee of the Party is elected for a term of five years. In the
event that a National Congress is convened early or postponed, the
term shall be shortened or extended accordingly. The length of Party
membership of Central Committee members or alternate members must be a
minimum of five years. The number of members and alternate members of
a Central Committee shall be determined by the National Congress.
Empty seats on the Central Committee shall be filled by alternate
members in order of the number of votes they were elected by. [This
phrase is repeated
several other time for other elected stuff.]
Art.23:
The Political Bureau, the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau, and
the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Party are
elected at the plenary
session of the Central Committee. The General Secretary of the Central
Committee must be generated from among the members of the Political
Bureau’s Standing Committee.
Art.25:
At every level, the number of delegates to a local Party congress
and the procedures
governing their election shall be determined by the local Party committee at the
corresponding level and reported for approval to the Party committee
at the next level up.
Art. 42:
Any decision to discipline a member or alternate member of the
Central Committee or a
local committee at any level by removal from his or her position
within the Party, disciplinary probation, or expulsion from the Party
must be approved by a two-thirds
majority vote at a plenary meeting of the Party committee to which the
member or alternate
member in question belongs.

CONCLUSION:
I do not know how much these constitutions really describe what is going on.
The electoral methods used inside the CCP are not described in their
constitution
and I do not know where they are described.
Can anybody find out? But my current GUESS, which
is supported by article 22, is they rely mainly on the SAME sort of process the
NPC allegedly is elected by.

If so, then China is kind of similar to ancient Sparta. In Sparta the
"citizens"
participated in a semi-democracy, everybody else had a lower status and probably
enjoyed it considerably less.
In China, same thing but "CCP members" instead of "citizens."
Comparable percentage fractions too. I would however say that China has
improved over Sparta. For example in Sparta whether you were a citizen
was mainly determined by who your parents were. In China there supposedly
is a meritocracy (for their definition of "merit") governing party admission.

If the CCP really is run semi-democratically via approval voting (and
the CCP holds
the power), that perhaps explains why China (like Sparta)
has enjoyed such great success by various measures.

--
Warren D. Smith
http://RangeVoting.org <-- add your endorsement (by clicking
"endorse" as 1st step)

[Warren D Smith]

Here are 4 press pieces about communist party
of China internal elections process (or its absence).
There are claims the CCP does not obey its own internal rules.
What really happens seems to be largely a mystery, even to
supposed China experts.

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/27/three-disgraced-chinese-communist-party-officials-accused-of-trying-to-rig-elections.html

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-41250273

https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2017/10/17/558078791/how-will-china-select-its-new-leaders-at-its-communist-party-congress

https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/happened-chinese-communist-party-xi-171024073500957.html