National Congress of The Communist Party of China - Overview

Overview

The National CPC Congress should not be confused with the National People's Congress which is the legislature of the People's Republic of China. In contrast with the NPC which has become more assertive since the 1990s, the National Congress of the Communist Party has shown no signs of becoming a deliberative assembly with independent power. In addition the National Congress should not be confused with the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. While leadership changes in the government usually occur at the National People's Congress sessions, now held every March, leadership changes in the party occur at the Party's National Congress.

Since the mid-1980s, the Communist Party has attempted to maintain a smooth and orderly succession and avoiding a cult of personality, by having a major shift in personnel every ten years in even number party congresses, and by promoting people in preparation for this shift in odd number party congresses.

In addition, as people at the top level of the party retire, there is room for younger members of the party to move up one level. Hence the party congress is a time of a general personnel reshuffle, and the climax of negotiations that involve not only the top leadership but practically all significant political positions in China. Because of the pyramid structure of the party and the existence of mandatory retirement ages, cadres who are not promoted at a party congress are likely to face the end of their political careers.

In addition to making leadership changes, the Congress also reviews and changes, if necessary, the Party's Constitution, and selects the Central Committee, a powerful decision making body. Each five-year cycle of the National People's Congress also has a series of plenums of the Central Committee which since the mid-1990s have been held more or less regularly once every year.

Since the establishment of PRC, the Congresses have occurred approximately every five years and since 1956, they have always taken place in the capital, Beijing. Each Party Congress lasted for five to ten days. Unlike Central Committee meetings which have on occasion been the focus of shifts in Party policy, Congresses have been occasions in which personnel decisions made beforehand have been announced, and ideologies and doctrines which have already been introduced are entrenched into the Party Constitution.

Each Congress's name is abbreviated in Chinese as the number of the Conference, followed by character da (大), short for dahui (大会 "conference"). For example, the sixteenth Conference, Zhōnguó Gòngchǎndǎng Dìshíliùcì Quánguó Dàibiǎo Dàhuì (simplified Chinese: 中国共产党第十六次全国代表大会; traditional Chinese: 中國共產黨第十六次全國代表大會), is shortened to Shíliù Dà (十六大 "sixteenth da").

Similar to the practice of the NPC, the delegates to the Congress are formally selected from grassroot party organizations, and like the NPC, the system of staggered elections in which one level of the party votes for the delegates to the next higher level allows the party center to control the election of delegates.