Government Structure
Hand-curated org chart of the bodies whose documents we crawl, placed in the Chinese party-state hierarchy. Solid cards link to the corpus; dashed cards are uncrawled context to make the rest of the chart make sense. Recent reorganizations (NDA spun out of NDRC + CAC in Oct 2023; MOST restructured 2023) are reflected.
70 bodies crawled
180,480 documents
87 nodes on chart
The Party — 中国共产党
The Chinese Communist Party runs in parallel with the state and outranks it at every level. None of our 70 crawl targets are party organs — these boxes are here so the rest of the chart makes sense.
CCP Central Committee
中国共产党中央委员会
Selects the Politburo and Standing Committee. Apex of the party-state.
Politburo Standing Committee
中央政治局常务委员会
7-member innermost circle. Xi Jinping is General Secretary.
Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission
中央网络安全和信息化委员会
Sets internet and data strategy. Its general office IS the CAC.
Central Science and Technology Commission
中央科技委员会
Created 2023. Sets S&T strategy. MOST serves as its admin office.
Central Financial Commission
中央金融委员会
Created 2023. Oversees financial regulation; replaces FSDC.
Central Reform Commission
中央全面深化改革委员会
Drives cross-ministry reform initiatives; chairs structural overhauls.
Legislative — 全国人大
The National People's Congress is the legal-source layer. It passes laws that the State Council and ministries then implement through regulations.
Judicial — 最高人民法院
The Supreme People's Court is the apex of the regular court system. Reports to the NPC but operates independently of the State Council.
State Council & Ministries — 国务院
The central executive. Headed by the Premier (Li Qiang). Below it sit 26 constituent departments (ministries / commissions), a handful of directly subordinate agencies at ministerial rank, and national bureaus that report up through a parent ministry.
National Development & Reform Commission
国家发展和改革委员会
Macro-economic planner. Five-year plans, industrial policy, energy, pricing.
constituent (commission)
National Data Administration
国家数据局
Data infrastructure, data-element markets, Digital China. Created Oct 2023; absorbed functions from CAC + NDRC.
national bureau (under NDRC)
State Information Center
国家信息中心
Think tank under NDRC. Economic forecasting, informatization, e-government. Advisory, not regulatory.
public institution (under NDRC)
Reading the chart:
"Constituent" departments are the 26 cabinet-level ministries.
"Directly subordinate" agencies (SAMR, CAC) are ministerial-rank but
structured slightly differently. "National bureaus" (NDA) and "public
institutions" (SIC) sit under a parent ministry. The CAC has a dual
identity — same office, two nameplates: state-side under the State
Council, party-side under the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission.
Provincial — 省级
Provinces, autonomous regions, and direct-controlled municipalities (Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing, Tianjin) are all province-rank. Each mirrors the State Council's ministry structure at its own scale.
Guangdong Province
广东省
Coastal manufacturing + tech powerhouse. Supervises Shenzhen, Guangzhou, and 19 other prefecture cities.
Beijing Municipality
北京市
National capital. Direct-controlled (province-rank); runs 16 districts directly.
direct-controlled
Shanghai Municipality
上海市
Financial center. Direct-controlled (province-rank); runs 16 districts directly.
direct-controlled
Chongqing Municipality
重庆市
Southwest megacity. Direct-controlled (province-rank), not a city under a province.
direct-controlled
Jiangsu Province
江苏省
Coastal industrial province. Supervises Nanjing (sub-provincial), Suzhou, Wuxi.
Zhejiang Province
浙江省
Coastal province. Supervises Hangzhou and Ningbo (both sub-provincial).
Heilongjiang Province
黑龙江省
Northeast rust-belt, borders Russia. Capital Harbin (sub-provincial).
Cities — 副省级市 / 地级市
Sub-provincial cities (vice-provincial rank, e.g. Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Wuhan, Hangzhou) sit just below province-rank. Prefecture-level cities (Guangdong cities, Suzhou, etc.) are one rung lower.
Sub-provincial (vice-provincial rank)
Shenzhen Municipality
深圳市
Vice-provincial SEZ in Guangdong. Tech/finance hub with semi-autonomous legislative power.
sub-provincial
Guangzhou Municipality
广州市
Vice-provincial capital of Guangdong. Traditional southern commercial center.
sub-provincial
Wuhan Municipality
武汉市
Vice-provincial capital of Hubei. Central China transport, auto, steel hub.
sub-provincial
Hangzhou Municipality
杭州市
Vice-provincial capital of Zhejiang. Alibaba HQ; digital-economy hub.
sub-provincial
Prefecture-level cities
Suzhou Municipality
苏州市
Largest prefecture-level city by GDP. Manufacturing + Singapore industrial park.
prefecture-level
Huizhou
惠州市
East of Shenzhen. Petrochemical and electronics manufacturing.
prefecture-level
Jieyang
揭阳市
Eastern Guangdong. Metal-forging; Teochew region.
prefecture-level
Zhongshan
中山市
Pearl River Delta. Light manufacturing; named for Sun Yat-sen.
prefecture-level
Jiangmen
江门市
Western PRD. Chinese-diaspora hometown; manufacturing.
prefecture-level
Heyuan
河源市
Mountainous northeast Guangdong. Reservoir city.
prefecture-level
Shanwei
汕尾市
Coastal eastern Guangdong. Fisheries.
prefecture-level
Zhuhai
珠海市
PRD SEZ across from Macau. Tourism + tech.
prefecture-level
Yangjiang
阳江市
Coastal western Guangdong. Knife/cutlery industry.
prefecture-level
Shaoguan
韶关市
Northern Guangdong, Hunan border. Mining and heavy industry.
prefecture-level
Yunfu
云浮市
Western Guangdong. Stone processing.
prefecture-level
Shantou
汕头市
Eastern Guangdong SEZ. Teochew commercial center.
prefecture-level
Zhaoqing
肇庆市
Western edge of PRD. Historic prefecture seat.
prefecture-level
Special
Shenzhen Municipal Departments — 深圳市直机关
Each Shenzhen bureau is dual-aligned — locally led by the Shenzhen municipal government (kuai 块) but operationally tied to a central ministry (tiao 条). The "mirrors" column below names the central body each bureau answers to functionally.
"Mirrors central" is the functional counterpart, not always a
strict reporting line. Most bureaus are kuai-led (the
Shenzhen government controls budget and personnel); a few
(Public Security, Audit) are under dual leadership.
Shenzhen Districts — 深圳市辖区
Shenzhen has 8 formal administrative districts plus Dapeng, which is a functional zone (新区) without its own People's Congress. Districts run day-to-day urban governance: education, sub-bureaus of public security, street offices, district courts. Bao'an is a coverage gap.
Futian District
福田区
CBD; seat of Shenzhen municipal government and party committee.
Luohu District
罗湖区
Old downtown. HK border crossing at Luohu Port.
Nanshan District
南山区
Tech hub. HQs of Tencent, ZTE, DJI. Hosts Shenzhen Bay tech zone.
Yantian District
盐田区
Eastern coastal district. Container port. Smallest by population.
Pingshan District
坪山区
Eastern industrial. Upgraded from new district to formal status 2017.
Guangming District
光明区
Northern district. Upgraded from new district 2018; science-city focus.
Longhua District
龙华区
Central district. Foxconn factories. Upgraded to formal status 2017.
Longgang District
龙岗区
Northeast. Manufacturing + Huawei R&D campus.
Dapeng New District
大鹏新区
Eastern peninsula. Ecology + tourism focus.
functional zone (新区)
⚐ Not a formal administrative division; managed by a municipal committee.
Coverage gap:
Bao'an District (the largest by population) and Qianhai
Authority (functional zone) are not crawled. Party-side bodies
(district committees, propaganda departments) are not in the
corpus at any sub-national level.
Media & Research — 媒体 / 研究
Not state organs, but party-state mouthpieces and research institutions whose output shapes policy interpretation. Crawled separately from government docs.
Xinhua News Agency
新华社/新华网
State news agency; ministerial-rank under the State Council. Issues authoritative readings.
People's Daily
人民日报
CCP Central Committee's flagship newspaper. Editorials signal party line.
Guancha / Observer Network
观察者网
Nationalist-leaning current affairs outlet. Useful for elite policy commentary.
Phoenix News
凤凰网
HK-Beijing media bridge. Mainland-licensed but more freewheeling editorial.
LatePost
晚点LatePost
Tech-business outlet from Caixin alumni. Strong on AI / startup investigations.
36Kr
36氪
Tech startup news + analysis. Roughly China's TechCrunch.
China Law Translate
China Law Translate
Independent project producing English translations of Chinese laws. Cross-linked to our native CN docs.
research
Tsinghua AIIG
清华大学人工智能国际治理研究院
Tsinghua research institute. Bridge between academic AI governance and policy.
research
Sources for the structure:
NPC Observer (state council org chart, 2024 organic-law updates),
DigiChina/Stanford (NDA establishment translation), CSET/Georgetown
(2023 reform plan translation), Barry Naughton (UCIGCC, MOST reform
analysis), MERICS, CSIS, CECC, official PRC sites.
Last verified 2026-04-28.
What's missing: Party-side bodies at sub-national level, district party committees, people's congresses below the central NPC, district courts, procuratorates, several major Shenzhen departments (Finance, Ecology, Market Supervision, SASAC, local 网信办), and Bao'an + Qianhai. The corpus is government-side only at every sub-national level.
What's missing: Party-side bodies at sub-national level, district party committees, people's congresses below the central NPC, district courts, procuratorates, several major Shenzhen departments (Finance, Ecology, Market Supervision, SASAC, local 网信办), and Bao'an + Qianhai. The corpus is government-side only at every sub-national level.