Chinese foreign policymaking: institutions and processes

• Foreign policymaking is related to institutions and processes • Foreign policy institution is an organizational system, in which

decision makers responsible for foreign affairs, conditioned by given political and organizational structures, transform the pressures and demands from the external world into a national policy as a response to them.

• Foreign policymaking process is about the evolution of a given policy unfolding from the beginning to the end.

• After 1949 China's foreign relations became increasingly more complex as China established formal diplomatic relations with more nations, joined the United Nations (UN) and other international and regional political and economic organizations, developed ties between the Chinese Communist Party and foreign parties, and expanded trade and other economic relations with the rest of the world.

• Traditionally the decision-making power for the most important decisions has been at the top of the leadership (Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai and later Deng Xiaoping).

• By the late 1980s, Deng had initiated steps to institutionalize decision making and make it less dependent on personal authority, and this transition has been complete.

• By the late 1980s, more organizations were involved in China's foreign relations than at any time previously.

State structure of the PRC

The National People’s Congress

The National People's Congress ( NPC) of the People's Republic of China is the supreme organ of state power. Its permanent body is the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress. The NPC is composed of deputies elected from the provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government, and special administrative regions, and of deputies elected from the armed forces. All the minority nationalities are entitled to appropriate representation.

The NPC’s function and power related to foreign affairs stated in the Constitution

•It Increases its influence on foreign policy and is more active on the international scene by increasing its contacts with counterpart organizations in foreign countries. Through its Standing Committee and its Foreign Affairs Committee, the National People's Congress had a voice in foreign relations matters and occasionally prepared reports on foreign policy-related issues for other party and government bodies.

The President of the PRC

• The presidential power related to foreign affairs according to the Constitution

Article 80 … in pursuance of the decisions of the National People’s Congress and its Standing Committee, proclaims entering of the state of emergency; proclaims a state of war; and issues mobilization orders.

Article 81 … in pursuance of the decisions of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, appoints or recalls plenipotentiary representatives abroad, and ratifies or abrogates treaties and important agreements concluded with foreign states.

Major Ministries related to Foreign Affairs in the State Council

Nine Parties in the PRC

Structure of the CPC

The Decision-Making Process

Key players and influencing factors