State Council of the People's Republic of China

What the State Council is

The State Council of the People's Republic of China is the Central People's Government. In the Chinese government's own organisational pages it is described as the executive body of the highest organ of state power and the highest organ of state administration^[1]. The two halves of that description point in different directions. As an executive body, it carries out what the highest organ of state power decides; as the highest organ of state administration, it stands at the top of the administrative system. Article 2 of the State Council Organisation Law uses the same wording^[2].

Who is in it

The State Council is composed of the Premier, the Vice Premiers, the State Councillors, the ministers of ministries, the directors of commissions, the Governor of the People's Bank of China, the Auditor-General and the Secretary-General^[1]. The composition mixes three kinds of member: the political leadership in the Premier, Vice Premiers and State Councillors; the heads of the departments of government; and a small number of office-holders whose posts are named individually — the central bank governor, the auditor-general and the secretary-general.

The constituent departments named on the government's own pages include the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology^[1]. These four alone show the spread of the body's business: diplomacy, macro-level development planning, science and technology policy, and industrial and information technology policy.

How it works

The State Council practises a system under which the Premier assumes overall responsibility, and the Premier leads the work of the State Council^[1]. Its business is handled in two different settings. The plenary meeting consists of all its members; the executive meeting is smaller, consisting of the Premier, the Vice Premiers, the State Councillors and the Secretary-General^[2]. The distinction separates a full gathering of the body from a standing core that can meet more readily.

Day-to-day running is in the hands of the Secretary-General, who under the leadership of the Premier is responsible for handling the day-to-day work of the State Council; the General Office is headed by the Secretary-General^[1].

Formal acts are signed by the Premier: administrative regulations, decisions and orders issued by the State Council, and bills submitted to the National People's Congress^[2]. The signing rule is the legal expression of the overall-responsibility system — the body acts, and the Premier signs.

To whom it answers

The State Council is responsible for, and reports on, its work to the National People's Congress, and when the Congress is not in session, to its Standing Committee^[2]. This closes the loop with the "executive body" formula: the body that carries out decisions also answers for them to the organ that made them.

Legal basis

The State Council Organisation Law was adopted on 10 December 1982 and revised on 11 March 2024 at the second session of the 14th National People's Congress^[2]. Its Article 2 restates the body's two-fold character^[2], and the law also sets out the two forms of meeting and the rule that the Premier signs the body's regulations, decisions, orders and bills^[2].

Why it is worth knowing

Reading the State Council through three layers — who is in it^[1], how it meets and decides^[2], and what law governs it^[2] — gives a concrete picture of how the top of China's administrative system is put together. The same body is at once the executive of the highest organ of state power and the highest organ of state administration, and both identities hold at the same time.