Elections in China

Congresses are directly elected
“Directly elected” means that people vote directly

for a candidate or a party they desire to see elected. Examples of directly elected bodies are the European Parliament (since 1979)

national legislature are indirectly elected by the People's Congress of

the level immediately below
An indirect election is an election in which voters do not choose between candidates, but elect people who then choose
Governors, mayors, and heads of counties, districts, townships and towns are in turn elected by the respective local People's Congresses
Presidents of people's courts and chief procurators of people's procuratorates are elected by the respective local People's Congresses above the county level

National People's Congress, which is made of 2980 people

districts (不设区的市-Bù shè qū de shì), counties (县-Xiàn), city districts

(市辖区-Shì xiáqū), towns (镇-Zhèn), townships (乡-Xiāng), and lastly ethnic townships (民族乡-Mínzú xiāng), are directly elected.
Village (村-Cūn) committee members and chairpersons are directly elected.
Local People's Congresses have the constitutional authority to recall the heads and deputy heads of government at the provincial level and below

Under the electoral law of 1979, nomination of candidates for direct elections (in counties, townships, etc.) can be made by the Communist Party of China, the various other political parties, mass organizations, or any voter seconded by at least 3 others

worked out through "discussion and consultation" or primary elections, which

in practice is done via the election committee in consultation with small groups of voters, through a process known as the "three ups and three downs" (三上三下, sān shàng sān xià)

nominations, checks them, and publishes the list of nominees and

their basic details first "down"- the published list is given to groups of electors, comprising the voters in each geographical or institutional electorate for discussion second "up" - the views of the groups of electors are conveyed via group representatives at a committee meeting, in order to reduce the number of candidates second "down"- the views of different elector groups and the discussions at the committee meeting are then conveyed to voters third "up" - the views of the groups of electors are once again collated and reported to the election committee which, by reference to the views of the majority of electors, determine the final list of candidates third "down" - the list of names and basic details is published by electorate

According to the Chinese government, the "three ups and three downs" process is supposed to operate as follows:

tui zhi xuan)
direction election (Chinese: 直选; pinyin: zhi xuan)
two ballots

in three rounds (Chinese: 三轮两票制; pinyin: san lun liang piao zhi)
competition based on mass recommendation (Chinese: 民推竞选; pinyin: min tui jing xuan)
nomination and election by the masses (海选 or hǎi xuǎn; literally "sea election")
public recommendation and public election (Chinese: 公推公选; pinyin: gong tui gong xuan)
vote of confidence (Chinese: 信任投票; pinyin: xin ren tou piao)

and cities divided into districts (设区的市) are indirectly elected by

the People's Congress of the level immediately below.

elected for five year terms. Deputies are elected (over a

three-month period) by the people's congresses of the provinces of China, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government, special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau, and the armed forces. The size of each college of delegates is related to the number of electors in the constituency. 36 deputies are elected in Hong Kong.

Chairman, Vice-Chairman, and Secretary-General of the Standing Committee of the

NPC, the Chairman of the Central Military Commission, and the President and Chief Justice of the Supreme People's Court are all elected by the NPC on the nomination of the Presidium of the NPC. The Premier is elected by the NPC on the nomination of the President. Other members of the State Council are elected by the NPC on the nomination of the Premier. Other members of the Central Military Commission are elected by the NPC on the nomination of the Chairman of the Central Military Commission

Two of them are in Hong Kong and Makao

Gong Party (CZGP) 中国致公党（致公党） Chinese Peasants' and Workers' Democratic Party (CPWDP)

中国农工民主党（农工党） China Democratic League (CDL) 中国民主同盟（民盟） Jiusan Society (JS) 九三学社 China Democratic National Construction Association (CDNCA) 中国民主建国会（民建) China Association for Promoting Democracy (CAPD) 中国民主促进会（民进） Taiwan Democratic Self-Government League (TDSGL) 台湾民主自治同盟（台盟） Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang (RCCK) 中国国民党革命委员会（民革）