Abstract. Under the conditions of China’s steadily growing role in world politics, the task of moving from assimilation and criticism of Western theoretical discourse to creation and development of national political science schools is becoming more and more urgent. The article gives a brief review of the Chinese political science history, outlines the main achievements and tasks of the current stage in the process of formation of political science with Chinese characteristics. The article disputes the thesis of the universal nature of Western political science, critically evaluates some Western political theories: democracy, constitutional government, civil society; an attempt is made to show their shortcomings and limitations of their application. The main focus of the article is on clarifying the Chinese theory of democracy, which enriches and develops Marxist democratic theory, based on a generalization of the history of China’s democratic practice and an analysis of modern democratic politics led by the CCP. Another important area of interest of the Chinese political science school – the empirical studies of the political development of China – is also covered. The features of the Chinese parliamentary system, the system of political parties where the Communist Party plays the leading role, are described. An attempt is made to depict the relationship between the party leadership and the legislative branch in China. It justifies the need for the formation of government bodies from top to bottom on the basis of the Chinese consultative democracy principles, which to a certain extent oppose the “elective democracy” concept. Particular attention is paid to rural self-government bodies and difficulties in their formation, which have recently caused a hightened interest among Chinese researchers. The final part of the article outlines the most important tasks of Chinese political science for the near future.