Organization Department of the Chinese Communist Party

The Organization Department is one of the most important organs of the CCP. It forms the institutional heart of the Leninist party system. It controls party personnel assignments throughout the national system, and compiles detailed and confidential reports on future potential leaders of the CCP. The department is known for its highly secretive nature; state media outlet China News Service stated it "always wears a mysterious veil" and historically interacted little with the public or press.

Because the People's Republic of China (PRC) is a one-party state, the CCP Organization Department has an enormous amount of control over state personnel. The Organization Department is indispensable to the CCP's power, and the key to its hold over personnel throughout every level of government and industry. It is one of the key agencies of the Central Committee, along with the Central Propaganda Department, United Front Work Department and International Department.

History

In May 1924, the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party officially decided to establish the Organization Department, with Mao Zedong as its head. The 4th National Party Congress's Resolution on Organizational Issues said that "establishing a powerful Central Organization Department can actually guide the local party organizations".

On 20 March 1943, the CCP Politburo passed the Decision of the CCP Central Committee on the Adjustment and Streamlining of Central Institutions, which stipulated that all major political, ideological, military, policy and organizational issues must be discussed and approved at the Politburo meeting. Under the Politburo and the Secretariat, the Propaganda Committee and the Organization Committee were established as assistant organs of the Politburo and Secretariat. Mao Zedong served as secretary of the Propaganda Committee while Liu Shaoqi served as secretary of the Organization Committee. The Organization Committee was responsible for the unified management of the Central Organization Department (including the Central Party Affairs Committee), the United Front Work Department, the Mass Movement Work Committee, the Central Research Bureau, and the Overseas Work Committee. The Organization Committee was now the Central Party Building Work Leading Group.

In 1953, the Central Committee decided to implement a "system of cadres managed by different departments" and a "system of cadres managed at different levels," changing the previous system where all types of cadres were uniformly managed by the Party's organization departments. All cadres were divided into nine categories, and under the unified management of the Party Central Committee and the organization departments of Party committees at all levels, they were managed separately by the various departments of the Party Central Committee and Party committees at all levels (such as the Ministry of Planning and Industry, the Ministry of Finance and Trade, the Ministry of Rural Work, the Propaganda Department, the United Front Work Department, and the Political Work Department). The Central People's Government Council and its various ministries, as well as local governments at all levels, also established personnel departments to assist the Party's organization departments in the comprehensive management of cadre work in government agencies, enterprises, and institutions, and to manage a portion of cadres under the leadership of the Party committees and Party groups according to their cadre management authority. In 1955, the Central Committee promulgated the List of Cadre Positions Managed by the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, placing all cadres at the prefectural and departmental levels and above under the direct management of the Organization Department of the Central Committee, who were then referred to as "Central-managed cadres."

In 1980, the Organization Department issued a special document emphasizing the need to correctly adhere to the "principle of the Party's management of cadres," and stipulated the scope and system for cadre management by Party committees at all levels. It required that the appointment, removal, promotion, transfer, review, and handling of cadre issues must be decided collectively by the Party committee and approved by the competent Party organization according to the cadre management authority; no individual could act arbitrarily. In 1984, to adapt to the needs of economic system reform and in accordance with the spirit of the Central Committee's instructions on reforming the cadre management system, the Organization Department, adhering to the principles of "less management, better management, and more flexible management," delegated cadre management authority, deciding that the scope of cadre management by Party committees at all levels (excluding the military) would be adjusted from "managing two levels below" to "managing one level below."

In addition to the Notice on Revising the List of Titles of Cadres Managed by the CCP Central Committee issued by the Organization Department in 1990, which stated that "the appointment and removal of the heads and deputy heads of the organization departments of the Party committees of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government, and the heads and deputy heads of the cadre and personnel departments (bureaus) of the ministries and commissions of the Central and State organs shall still be carried out in accordance with the provisions of Document No. 4 of the CCP Central Committee [1986], and the consent of the Organization Department of the CCP Central Committee must be obtained in advance," the notice also added that the appointment and removal of the Party secretaries and mayors of 14 sub-provincial cities, including Shenyang, as well as the Party secretaries of 54 enterprises and institutions, including China First Automobile Works, Peking University, and the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, which were transferred to the State Council for management in September 1988, must also be subject to the consent of the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee in advance.

On August 5, 2003, with the approval of the CCP Central Committee and the State Council, the China Pudong Cadre Academy, the China Jinggangshan Cadre Academy, and the China Yan'an Cadre Academy were established. The three academies are directly under the central government and are managed by the Organization Department. Their daily affairs are handled by the Party committees of the provinces (municipalities) where the academies are located. The academies implement a system of responsibility for the academy affairs committee under the leadership of the board of directors. The secretariat of the board of directors is located in the Cadre Education Bureau of the Organization Department.

In the early 2000s, the Organization Department introduced an evaluation procedure for leading officials (the cadre system) that aimed to assess regularly the officials' performance and success at implementing policies. David Shambaugh notes the promulgation of Regulations on the Selection and Appointment of Party and Government Leading Cadres in July 2002, writing that the Organization Department has stepped up its evaluation of cadres, including annual appraisal reviews according to various criteria. However, research conducted by Thomas Heberer in China in 2007 revealed that an effective evaluation procedure is not yet in place. Crucial policy areas, such as environmental issues, are not being evaluated, and evaluation is predominantly based on self-assessment.

In 2018, as part of the deepening the reform of the Party and state institutions, it absorbed the former State Civil Servants Bureau. The rationale for the change was that it would better enforce the principle of "the Party controls the cadres."