Chinese Political History II: Chapter 2, Exercise 1 — Possible Solution
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TASK
Draw the two hierarchies from memory and mark how each is elected or
appointed. Then say why the 1980 zone Regulations came from the NPC
Standing Committee even though the policy was set by party bodies.

ANSWER

STATE SIDE
  NPC (indirectly elected via provincial and local people's congresses)
    -> NPC Standing Committee (sits between sessions)
    -> elects the president; approves the premier on the president's
       nomination
    -> State Council (premier, vice premiers, state councillors, ministers)

PARTY SIDE
  National Party Congress (every five years)
    -> elects the Central Committee
    -> which elects the Politburo and its Standing Committee
    -> General Secretary (also chairs the Central Military Commission)

WHY THE REGULATIONS CAME FROM THE STANDING COMMITTEE
Chapter 1: the decision to open Guangdong and Fujian was taken in July 1979
in party channels, and the Regulations were approved on 26 August 1980 by
the NPC Standing Committee. A party decision has no legal force as law; the
state side has to enact it. The Standing Committee is the state body that
does that work between the NPC's short annual sessions.

POINT
The party set the direction; the state issued the law. Both ladders were
led by overlapping people, so the two stayed aligned.