PRC and CCP

[Noah]

In 1959 Mao steps down as the chairman of the PRC but stays as chairman of the Chinese Communist Party....I don't understand though, how does the system work? I thought the PRC (being the new name for China) and the CCP were one.

Can someone please clarify?

Cheers

Noah

[Q]

Oh joy, lets discuss the subtleties of a bureaucratic dictatorship.

[Noah]

I'm trying to improve my history and knowledge - i'd rather know about it than not, if you've got nothing useful to say then don't say it.

[Dimentio]

China is rather murky and has always been.

The CCP and PRC are organised in exactly the same way, with congresses down from the village level up to the national level. In 1959, after the Leap, Mao did not longer have the trust of the leaders of the PRC, and thus stepped down, only to return with greater power in 1966.

For the moment, the CCP is the strongest factor, but you could never really know who is running China.

[Dros]

It's kind of complicated. The CCP is the group calling the shots but they are not in any sense the state. They run the state and CCP possitions are also governmental possitions but it is possible to hold rank in one but not the other. It's kind of like (but not really) how Howard Dean in the Chair of the National Commitee of the Democratic Party in the U.S. while not actually holding office. The difference is that the Democrats aren't running the country the way the CCP is. It's also similar to the USSR. There were a bunch of heads of state (both official and de facto) in the USSR and only one of them was ever really that powerful. There was the position of Premier which was held by Lenin, the position of General Secretary, the President of the Soviet Union held by Gorbachev, Chairman of the Central Committee, and Chairman of the Presidium.