China’s Central-Local Relations: “Constitutional Vacuum” Revisited

China constitutionally remains a unitary state, but it has been stuck in a continuous loop of centralization and decentralization throughout its history. In the pre-Xi era, the communist regime relied heavily on the Chinese Communist Party’s policies to regulate power dynamics between the central and the local. Since Xi assumed power in 2012, the Constitution has turned into a tool used by the party-state to strengthen central control over local agents. Both the new anti-corruption and legislative review systems have been established in the 2018 Constitutional Amendment to help the center monitor and discipline local authorities more effectively.