By: Nabila Jaffer & Amna Latif
Understanding China’s development miracle requires a correct view of its political system. In the revolutionary struggle of China against the feudal monarchical system after 1911, the Communist Party of China (CPC) was the result of an intellectual movement. Formed on July 1, 1921, the cause of this party was rooted in the working class and the oppressed masses.CPC developed a governance model for the new China in 1949, guided by a Marxist-Leninist approach integrated with Chinesevalues, realities, and conditions, known as Socialism with Chinese Characteristics. For over a century, from learning to fight on the battlefield to the socioeconomic transformation of a war-ravaged, largely agrarian country into the world’s second-largest economy and the lifting of roughly 800 million people out of poverty, the CPC’s role has been unparalleled, yet it iswrongly viewed.
The dominant views labeling the Chinese system as authoritarian, ruled by a leader or a clique that consolidates power through coercion, come from the Eurocentric, stereotypical approaches. The best way to understand China is to know it through its own history, culture, civilizational values, and distinct political system. CPC, with 100.271 million members, is not just a party but a system deeply rooted among the people, with an effective party supervision and discipline system to maintain the integrity and righteousness of party leaders. The unparalleled economic success suggests that the system survives because it performs, not because it intimidates.
The remarkable transformation of China is the product of a people-centric approach,strong institutional and organizational structures at center, local, and primary levels, reforms,efficient implementation, monitoring systems,and long-term strategic planning. The agricultural and economic reforms, opening up, as well as Deng Xiaoping’s special economic zones, starting with Shenzhen in 1980, which turned a fishing town into a manufacturing hub, exemplify the successful policy transformation under CPC leadership. The policy Made in China 2025, launched in 2015, for innovation-driven development and indigenous technological capability, and, recently, China’s shift from a high-growth model to a high-quality model, underscore continued reforms and policy innovation in China in line with the country’s changing needs and the international environment. What makes China’s economic rise globally relevant is not only its expanding trade relations but also its commitment to sharing the fruits of its development with the rest of the world through theBelt and Road Initiative. Moreover, high-quality opening up is another step toward making China a new land of opportunities, reiterating this vision by Premier Li Qiang at the Summer Davos,termingthis innovation drive “China Opportunity 2.0” for technological collaboration and mutual empowerment. At this milestone, it is important to analyze how the Party works.
Experts like Yuchao Zhu call a shift in the party’s approach following the Mao era from a revolutionary mandate to meeting people’s expectations ‘the legitimacy logic’.This illustrates that the Party does not have a free hand to do whatever it wills. It has to earn the broader public trust through delivering economic growth, social stability, and governance competence.The government itself facilitates the channeling of Chinese society’s dissatisfaction or complaints.However, survey data from institutions like the Ash Centre at Harvard, which has been tracking Chinese public opinion since 2003, show high rates of satisfaction with the government. The Party is reinforcing this from the inside too. In February 2026, it launched a nationwide campaign for cadres to build a “correct view of governance performance,” with President Xi telling officials the Party exists to serve the public interest.
Another misconception is that the CPC governs as a monolith, issuing edicts from the top with no internal debate orsocietal input. CPC has a record of working with other partiesin the resistance against feudalism and foreign invasions. CPC followed the multiparty cooperation mechanism for drawing consensus on the formation of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). A system of multiparty cooperation was adopted under the leadership of the CPC with eight legally recognized non-Communist parties, all operating within a United Front framework, and a national consultative body, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, that exists specifically to draw business leaders, intellectuals, religious figures, and minority representatives into policy deliberation to uphold inclusivity.However, this is not a competitive multiparty system, and it was never conceived to be. But it does mean that the claim “the Party decides everything alone” is empirically false.
Policy in China typically moves through a long process involving expert consultation, pilot programs in selected provinces or cities, feedback from local cadres, and internal debate within Party organs, before it is implemented nationally. This rigorous practice of “experimenting first, legislating later” is a structured form of evidence-gathering that Western policy processes, for all their electoral legitimacy, rarely have the patience to do.Xi Jinping calls this governance model the whole-process people’s democracy, implying that democratic participation is something that happens continuously rather than as a single transaction at the ballot box.The idea is viewed with skepticism in the West, with critics pointing out that this is just an exercise in discourse-building for international audiences.But framing the question as “is this real democracy?” is the wrong test. The more useful test is whether the system responds to people’s needs. The CPC’s record on poverty alleviation, infrastructure delivery, and responsiveness at the grassroots level is hard to dismiss.
The concepts of harmony, collectivism, consultation, and meritocracy are not a recent invention of the CPC, but rather are entrenched in the Chinese civilizational history. The Confucian concept of he (harmony) holds that social order comes from sacrificing individual interest in favor of collective interests to bring stability to society. The Tang dynasty’s merit-based bureaucratic examinationand the Qing concept of minben (people-as-the-foundation), together with the Confucian concept of harmony, are ideas that influence Chinese political thought.
Another unique feature of the Chinese Party system is how power moves through the system. China’s senior leadership is not selected by inheritance or by popular vote. It comes through a multi-decade career ladder, starting from township and county postings up through provincial governorships before reaching Beijing. This system underscores democracy at the grassroots level, training and experimentation in the middle, and meritocracy at the top. President Xi Jinping himself served as a village party secretary in Shaanxi province during the Cultural Revolution. Similarly, Li Keqiang held provincial governorships in Henan and Liaoning before becoming Premier. The process ensures that people reaching the apex of the governmenthave enough experience to lead the whole nation. Moreover, power is differentiated between Party and state organs, between the Politburo and the wider Central Committee, in ways that check each other, even though these checks are not as formal as in Parliamentary systems, and prevent the rise of a single-personality cult.
Another important aspect of China’s governance model is that no one should be left behind. The system is effectively overcoming regional disparities by mobilizing resources from rich regions to underdeveloped regions through a paired assistance system. The Southeastern and coastal provinces and municipalities, such as Guangdong, Shanghai, and Zhejiang, are paired with Xinjiang and Guizhou for achieving development parity and social stability.
In addition to significant contributions to global economic stability, China’s global role as a political stabilizer under the CPC is also expanding. It supports democracy in the international system and advocates for a just, fair, and UN-centric world order. It is injecting stability and certainty into the world through various initiatives, offering Chinese wisdom and solutions to the turbulent world.
For anyone seeking to understand China, it is important to read it in the context of its own history and social values. Treating a gigantic nation that has undergone a remarkable socioeconomic transformation under the leadership of the CPC as a deviant case measured against Western metrics is reductive and dishonest.
Authors information:
Nabila Jaffer is a Research Analyst and Head of China Program, and Amna Latif is a Research Intern at the Institute of Regional Studies, Islamabad. The authors can be reached at [email protected] and [email protected].
