Chinese Presidency: Institutionalisation, Constitutional Ambiguities and the Trajectories towards Democratisation

The role of the Chinese presidency includes several important powers such as serving as the paramount leader of the Party, controlling the military, foreign affairs and national security portfolios of state power. With these configurations, a Chinese presidency has taken a preliminary shape — today China can be characterised as a one-Party presidential system. But ambiguities loom extraordinarily large, as the defining lines between Party powers and state powers are still undrawn and the constitutional bases of the presidency are almost entirely missing. Future developments, however, may offer breakthroughs in these areas.