General Office of the Chinese Communist Party

History

The General Office's establishment date is uncertain, though it existed by 1942 as Li Fuchun was its chief at that time; previously, its functions were exercised by the Organization Department or technical secretariats.

Function

The General Office is responsible for handling the day-to-day operations of the Central Committee, Secretariat, Politburo, and the Politburo Standing Committee. It is in charge of assisting in drafting, revising and editing and circulating party directives and internal memos, as well as the classification of party information. The General Office also transmits and ensures the implementation of the instructions from the top-level, formulates CCP regulations, and supervises legislation.

The General Office is also in charge of arranging logistics for major events and meetings of the Central Committee and its Politburo, and for preparing agendas, recording and filing meeting minutes, and distributing communications to meeting stakeholders. It is responsible for administrative staff and political secretaries, collecting briefing information, organizing inspection tours, managing the finances of the CCP, and handling logistics and liaisons with other top-level CCP organizations.

Although its business is often not overtly political, its Directors have historically had close connections with the CCP's top leaders, and usually join the Politburo or the Secretariat after their period leading the General Office. The Director of the General office has been informally referred to as the "Danei Zongguan" (大内总管), roughly translated as "the gatekeeper". While the Director of the General Office is sometimes referred to as an analogue to the party General Secretary's "Chief of Staff", the General Secretary also maintains a personal staff as part of the Office of the General Secretary, whose director may also, but not necessarily, conterminously hold the position of Director of the General Office.

Organization

The CCP General Office has the following institutions:

Internal organization

• Research Department (Deputy-ministerial level)
• Secretariat
• Bureau of Regulations
• Security Bureau
• Confidential Bureau (Deputy-ministerial level)
• Confidential Transportation Bureau
• Special Accounting Office
• Supervision and Inspection Office
• Personnel Bureau
• Office of the General Secretary
• Administration Bureau of Organs directly under the Central Committee

Subordinate agencies

• Central Archives (Deputy-ministerial level)
• Office of the Central Secrecy Commission (Deputy-ministerial level)
• Office of the Central Leading Group for Cryptography (Deputy-ministerial level)

Directly-affiliated institutions

• Central Government Offices Administration Bureau (Deputy-ministerial level)
• Chairman Mao Memorial Hall Administration
• Beijing Electronic Science and Technology Institute
• Central Gifts and Cultural Relics Management Center

References

References

1. (4 October 2024). "Decoding Chinese Politics: Party Center".
2. (22 December 2014). "新闻人物："大内总管"令计划". [[BBC News]].
3. (July 2018). "The Authority, Functions, and Political Intrigues of the General Office of the Chinese Communist Party". [[The China Journal]].