Editing Elections in China (section)

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{{About|elections in the People's Republic of China|elections in the Republic of China|Elections in Taiwan}}
{{Politics of China |expanded = Leadership}}

'''Elections in the People's Republic of China''' occur under a [[One-party state|one-party]] [[Authoritarianism|authoritarian]] political system controlled by the [[Chinese Communist Party]] (CCP).<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last1=Gandhi |first1=Jennifer |last2=Lust-Okar |first2=Ellen |date=2009-06-01 |title=Elections Under Authoritarianism |journal=[[Annual Review of Political Science]] |language=en |volume=12 |issue=1 |pages=403–422 |doi=10.1146/annurev.polisci.11.060106.095434 |issn=1094-2939 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name=":7">{{Cite journal |last1=Lee |first1=Ching Kwan |last2=Zhang |first2=Yonghong |date=2013-05-01 |title=The Power of Instability: Unraveling the Microfoundations of Bargained Authoritarianism in China |journal=[[American Journal of Sociology]] |volume=118 |issue=6 |pages=1475–1508 |doi=10.1086/670802 |issn=0002-9602 |s2cid=144559373}}</ref> [[Direct elections]], except in the [[Special administrative regions of China|special administrative regions]] of [[Elections in Hong Kong|Hong Kong]] and [[Elections in Macau|Macau]], occur only at the local level people's congresses and village committees, with all candidate nominations preapproved by the CCP.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last1=Geddes |first1=Barbara |title=How Dictatorships Work |last2=Wright |first2=Joseph |last3=Frantz |first3=Erica |date=2018 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-1-316-33618-2 |pages=141 |doi=10.1017/9781316336182 |s2cid=226899229}}</ref> By law, all elections at all levels must adhere to the leadership of the CCP.<ref name=":6">{{Cite journal |last1=Hao |first1=Mingsong |last2=Ke |first2=Xiwang |date=5 July 2023 |title=Personal Networks and Grassroots Election Participation in China: Findings from the Chinese General Social Survey |journal=[[Journal of Chinese Political Science]] |language=en |volume=29 |issue=1 |pages=159–184 |doi=10.1007/s11366-023-09861-3 |issn=1080-6954 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

Since the [[Proclamation of the People's Republic of China|founding]] of the People's Republic of China, elections have been highly constrained by the CCP's monopoly on power, limitations on [[Censorship in China|free speech]], and party control over nominations.<ref name="Hernández">{{Cite news |last=Hernández |first=Javier C. |date=2016-11-15 |title='We Have a Fake Election': China Disrupts Local Campaigns |language=en-US |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/16/world/asia/beijing-china-local-elections.html |access-date=2021-11-05 |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=2021-11-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211105023202/https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/16/world/asia/beijing-china-local-elections.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=":8">{{Cite news |date=2021-01-14 |title=The West once dreamed of democracy taking root in rural China |url=https://www.economist.com/china/2021/01/14/the-west-once-dreamed-of-democracy-taking-root-in-rural-china |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211105023203/https://www.economist.com/china/2021/01/14/the-west-once-dreamed-of-democracy-taking-root-in-rural-china |archive-date=2021-11-05 |access-date=2021-11-05 |newspaper=[[The Economist]] |issn=0013-0613}}</ref><ref name="NYT2" /> Elections are not [[Pluralism (political theory)|pluralistic]] as no opposition is allowed.<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":2" /> Rory Truex, a researcher of Chinese politics at [[Princeton University]], states that "the CCP tightly controls the nomination and election processes at every level in the [[Legislative system of China|people's congress system]]...the tiered, indirect electoral mechanism in the People's Congress system ensures that deputies at the highest levels face no semblance of electoral accountability to the Chinese citizenry."<ref name=":2" />

Local people's congresses are directly elected under the control of the CCP. All higher levels of people's congresses up to the [[National People's Congress]] (NPC), the [[highest organ of state power]], are [[indirect election|indirectly elected]] by the people's congress of the level immediately below.<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Citation |last=Gasper |first=Donald |title=The Chinese National People's Congress |date=1982 |work=Communist Legislatures in Comparative Perspective |pages=160–190 |editor-last=Nelson |editor-first=Daniel |place=London |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK |language=en |doi=10.1007/978-1-349-06086-3_7 |isbn=978-1-349-06088-7 |editor2-last=White |editor2-first=Stephen}}</ref> Candidate nominations at all levels are controlled by the CCP, and CCP's supreme position is enshrined in the country's [[Constitution of the People's Republic of China|constitution]].<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |title=Democracy |url=https://decodingchina.eu/democracy/ |access-date=2022-08-22 |website=Decoding China |date=4 February 2021 |publisher=[[Heidelberg University]] |language=en-US |archive-date=2022-08-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220816041118/https://decodingchina.eu/democracy/ |url-status=live }}</ref>