Doing Business with China

The State Council, or the Central People's Government, of the People's Republic of China is the executive body of the highest organ of state power and the highest organ of state administration. It exercises unified leadership over local state administrative organs at various levels throughout the country, regulates the specific division of power and function of the state administrative organs at the central level and at the provincial, autonomous regional and municipal levels. The head of the State Council is the Premier, who assumes overall responsibility for the work of the State Council and is responsible to the National People's Congress (NPC) and its Standing Committee on behalf of the State Council. The Premier is assisted by a Vice Premier and State Counsellors. The Premier has the following decision-making powers:

• The final decision-making power on all major issues in the work of the State Council.

• Power to propose to the NPC and its Standing Committee the appointment or removal of the Vice Premiers, State Counsellors, Ministers, the Auditor- general and the Secretary-general.

• Decisions, decrees and administrative rules and regulations promulgated by the State Council, and bills and proposals for appointments and removals submitted by the State Council to the NPC and its Standing Committee are legally valid only after the Premier has signed them.

The State Council consists of ministries, commissions, the People's Bank of China and administrations , who, under the unified leadership of the State Council, are in charge of directing and administering the administrative affairs in their respective areas and exercising prescribed state administrative powers. These government departments can be classified into the following categories by the nature of their function:

Macro-control organs

Such organs include:

• State Development Planning Commission

• State Economic and Trade Commission

• Ministry of Finance

• People's Bank of China

These organs, particularly the state commissions, coordinate at the national level and on a cross-industry basis and therefore have overruling decision-making power over the ministries and administrations.

Functional ministries

Functional ministries are mainly those which have a specified area of administrative interest and can be categorized into the following:

• Special economic administrative organs Such organs mainly consist of ministries that have an assigned industry-wide area of responsibilities, which are often reflected in the names of those ministries. The following is a list of such ministries:

  • Ministry of Railways

  • Ministry of Transport

  • Ministry of Construction

  • Ministry of Agriculture

  • Ministry of Water Conservancy

  • Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation

  • Ministry of Information Industry

  • Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence

  These ministries represent the State Council for decision-making on specific industries and exercise macro-administration over those industries.

• Social security organs

  • Ministry of Labour and Social Security

  • Ministry of Personnel

  • State Family Planning Commission

• Natural resource administrative organ

  • Ministry of Land and Resources

• Foreign affairs, internal affairs and security organs

  • Ministry of Foreign Affairs

  • State Commission of Ethnic Affairs

  • Ministry of Civil Affairs

  • Ministry of Justice

  • Ministry of Public Security

  • Ministry of State Security

  • Ministry of National Defence

  • Ministry of Supervision

  • National Audit Office

• Education, science, culture and health administrative organs

  • Ministry of Education

  • Ministry of Science and Technology

  • Ministry of Culture

  • Ministry of Health.

Administrations and Bureaux under the State Council

Most of the administrations and bureaux are sub- or semi-ministerial government agencies. They are more like supervisory and regulatory bodies on a cross-industry basis than sector-oriented decision-making departments. Such administrations and bureaux include the following:

• General Administration of Customs

• State Administration of Taxation

• State Environmental Protection Administration

• General Administration of Civil Aviation of China

• State Administration of Audio, Film and Television

• State Sports General Administration

• National Bureau of Statistics

• State Administration for Industry and Commerce

• General Administration of Press and Publication

• State Forestry Bureau

• General Administration of Quality Supervision,Inspection and Quarantine

• State Drug Administration

• State Intellectual Property Office

• National Tourism Administration

• State Administration of Religious affairs

• Counsellor's Office under the State Council

• Government Offices Administration of the State Council.

Offices directly under the State Council

These offices are designed to assist the Premier in dealing with matters in special areas. Generally, these organizations are at the vice-ministerial level in terms of their official ranking. They include:

• Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office

• Legislative Affairs Office

• Office for Restructuring the Economic System

• Research Office

• Information Office

• Taiwan Affairs Office.

Institutions directly under the State Council

• Xinhua News Agency

• Chinese Academy of Sciences

• Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

• Chinese Academy of Engineering

• Development Research Centre

• China National School of Administration

• China Seismological Bureau

• China Meteorological Administration

• China Securities Regulatory Commission

• China Insurance Regulatory Commission.

State Bureaux under the supervision of ministries and commissions

• State Administration of Grain under the supervision of the State Development Planning Commission

• State Administration of Work Safety also known as the State Administration of Coal Mine Safety Supervision under the supervision of the State Economic and Trade Commission

• State Tobacco Monopoly Administration under the supervision of the State Economic and Trade Commission

• State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs under the supervision of the Ministry of Personnel

• State Oceanic Administration under the supervision of the Ministry of Land and Resources

• State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping under the supervising of the Ministry of Land and Resources

• State Postal Bureau under the supervision of the Ministry of Information Industry

• State Administration of Cultural Heritage under the supervision of the Ministry of Culture

• State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine under the supervision of the Ministry of Health

• State Administration of Foreign Exchange under the supervision of the People's Bank of China.