A "people's democratic dictatorship"

The new system of government for the People's Republic of China contained three separate by parallel strands:

- The State bureaucracy at national, regional and local levels.
- The Communist Party at national, regional and local levels.
- The People's Liberation Army

The Communist Party was at the heart of the government structure in the new PRC. Leading members of the Party held all the key posts in both the government and the PLA. All the important debates about policy and all the key decisions were taken by the Party's Standing Committee., itself a select group taken from the larger Politburo. At the apex of the whole structure stood…