Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
bodies themselves are tightly controlled by one-party rule of the
Chinese Communists. The National People's Congress is a deliberative
and advisory body, but it has little real legislative power or policy-
making authority. Very few of its members dare to vote against CCP
directives. The Chinese Communists view with suspicion and horror
any attempts to transform the National People's Congress into a
genuinely independent policy-making body.
China's judiciary branch is headed up by the Supreme People's
Court, members of which are appointed by the National People's
Congress. The judiciary is far from independent and frequently bows
to the wishes of the CCP and the executive branch. In China, the rule
of man still largely prevails over the rule of law, although recently
there have been some hopeful indications that the judiciary may be
moving toward a more independent posture.
There are four basic levels of the Chinese government, and these are
based closely on precedents dating back to China's dynastic or
imperial era: (1) the central government in Beijing, (2) the provinces
(and four large urban areas equivalent to provinces), (3) the counties
(xian) in rural areas and cities (shi) in urban areas, and (4) the work
unit (danwei). China is currently composed of 23 provinces (22 main-
land provinces and the island of Taiwan, which China still considers
its 23rd province), 4 major municipalities administratively equivalent
to provinces (Beijing, Chongqing, Shanghai, and Tianjin), and 5
“autonomous regions”: Tibet, Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Ningxia, and
Guangxi. China is a unitary state with very little division of powers
or federalism. As in imperial China, administrative levels are organs
of the central government. Interestingly enough, however, some prov-
inces have recently shown surprising backbone and integrity in
resisting some of the diktat out of Beijing.
Under Article 116 of Communist China's latest of many constitu-
tions (this one adopted in 1982), the autonomous regions are (in theory
at least) free to “enact regulations on the exercise of autonomy and
other separate regulations in the light of the political, economic, and
cultural characteristics of the nationality or nationalities in the areas
concerned.” But, according to this same Article 116, the National Peo-
ple's Congress (itself a rubber-stamp parliament manipulated by the
CCP) still has final say over any policies and regulations. Thus, the
CCP regularly overrules any meaningful political and religious free-
dom for Tibet. The supposedly autonomous regions are powerless to
prevent the Han Chinese from flooding into their regions and diluting
their cultural integrity. Inner Mongolia is now more than 90 percent
Han Chinese and is “Mongolian” mostly in name only. Xinjiang's
