ABSTRACT
American students are taught about their political systems with reference to four relationships: relationships among the executive, legislative, and judiciary branches of government; relationships between the federal government and state and local governments; relationships between political parties and the government; and relationships between civilian and military authority. These relationships are governed and regulated by a system of checks and balances that are prescribed by the Constitution. However, when they study the Chinese political system, students might find many superficial similarities but fail to understand the profound differences.1 Indeed, China also has a constitution and other similar political institutions that look like those of the United States, such as congress, executive, courts, and political parties, but they are organized differently and work in very different ways to achieve different ends. Therefore, we should not simply look at what they appear to be but focus on the nature, the guiding ideology and principles, and inner workings of those institutions and their power relationships.
