Chapter 7 — The Party-State's Totalitarian Machine The Party Above the State, the Judiciary Reduced to a Tool, the Military and Police as Party Property, and the Partification of Society (1949–)

Focus：CORE ARGUMENT OF THIS CHAPTER. This chapter takes apart the skeleton of the Party-state’s totalitarian machine: the CCP is not an ordinary ruling party but the core of power that, through its “vertical lines and horizontal blocks,” stands above the constitution, the state, the army, the judiciary, the media, and social organizations. The Party directs legislation (the National People’s Congress becomes a rubber stamp), the Party directs justice (the police, procuratorate, and courts are reduced to tools), the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference becomes a decorative vase, mass organizations such as the trade unions, the Youth League, and the Women’s Federation become its claws and teeth, and the official media are made into its mouthpiece. Citizens have no genuine elections, recall, oversight, or independent redress, and no freedom of movement, leaving them all but prisoners. The more refined the structure, the harder it is for the individual to escape, and the more easily responsibility is concealed behind the name of “the organization.”