政 (zhèng): political, politics, government

政 (zhèng) is a Chinese character meaning “political.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 正 (phonetic) and 攵 (semantic). It ranks #150 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 政 script. Its radical form 攵 (rap) appears in many related characters such as 放 (fàng, to put, to release), 教 (jiào, (bound form) to teach), 收 (shōu, to receive).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. political
  2. politics
  3. government

Etymology & Origin

政

pictophoneticscript

Decomposition: ⿰正攵 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

Practice writing 政 with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 政

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
政府nounzhèng fǔgovernment5
政治nounzhèng zhìpolitics5
政策nounzhèng cèpolicy6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
财政nouncái zhèngpublic finance
行政nounxíng zhèngadministration
政客nounzhèng kèpolitician
政权nounzhèng quánregime
政治家nounzhèng zhì jiāstatesman
市政厅nounshì zhèng tīngcity hall
市政府nounshì zhèng fǔcity hall
执政官nounzhí zhèng guānconsul (of the Roman Republic)
市政nounshì zhèngmunicipal administration
政变nounzhèng biàncoup d'état
家政nounjiā zhènghousekeeping
财政部nouncái zhèng bùMinistry of Finance
暴政nounbào zhèngtyranny
内政nounnèi zhènginternal affairs (of a country)
政党nounzhèng dǎngpolitical party
102
Total compounds
44
As first character
41
As last character
15
As middle character

政 appears in 102 compound words: 44 as the first character, 41 as the last, and 15 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Strongest Collocations

Characters that most frequently co-occur with 政 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

府fǔ
0.798999,413 co-occurrences
治zhì
0.647677,133 co-occurrences
策cè
0.634180,437 co-occurrences
码mǎ
0.55871,728 co-occurrences
行xíng
0.556556,954 co-occurrences
邮yóu
0.52983,110 co-occurrences
划huá
0.50777,574 co-occurrences
编biān
0.49075,266 co-occurrences
财cái
0.48855,709 co-occurrences
权quán
0.47756,344 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (21)

北洋政府Běiyáng ZhèngfǔHSK 5+

Beiyang government

财政大臣Cáizhèng DàchénHSK 6+

Chancellor of the Exchequer

垂帘听政chuíliántīngzhèngHSK 7+

(of female royal members, e.g. empress or empress dowager) to rule in place of a monarch; to serve as regent

phrase
各自为政gèzìwéizhèngHSK 5+

each acts on their own according to their own preferences or desires without any overall coordination

phrase
公共行政gōnggòng xíngzhèngHSK 5+

public administration

noun
寡头政治guǎtóu zhèngzhìHSK 7+

oligarchy

noun
国民政府Guómín ZhèngfǔHSK 5+

National Government of the Republic of China; Nationalist government

君主政体jūn zhǔ zhèng tǐHSK 7+

monarchy; autocracy

phrase
联邦政府liánbāng zhèngfǔHSK 7+

federal government

noun
联合政府liánhé zhèngfǔHSK 5+

coalition government

noun
廉政公署Liánzhèng GōngshǔHSK 7+

the Independent Commission Against Corruption; the Commission Against Corruption

临时政府lín shí zhèng fǔHSK 5+

provisional government

phrase

Showing 12 of 21 idioms containing 政.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

政府出台了一系列新政策,促进经济发展。

Zhèngfǔ chūtái le yī xìliè xīn zhèngcè, cùjìn jīngjì fāzhǎn.

The government has introduced a series of new policies to promote economic development.

百度新闻Feb 2026

也门安全部队向反政府示威者开火 造成至少12人伤亡

yě mén ān quán bù duì xiàng fǎn zhèng fǔ shì wēi zhě kāi huǒ zào chéng zhì shǎo 1 2 rén shāng wáng

Yemeni security forces opened fire on anti-government demonstrators, killing at least 12 people

百度新闻Feb 2026

东西问丨全球政要马年“集体说马” 背后藏着三重文化..

dōng xī wèn 丨 quán qiú zhèng yāo mǎ nián jí tī shuō mǎ bēi hòu zàng zhe sān chóng wén huā . .

The world's top politicians are talking about horses in the Year of the Horse, a trio of cultural...

百度新闻Feb 2026

浙江省政府批复同意!宁波一大学将设新学院

zhè jiāng shěng zhèng fǔ pī fù tóng yì ! nìng bō yī dà xué jiāng shè xīn xué yuàn

Zhejiang Provincial Government Approved and Agreed! A university in Ningbo will set up a new college

百度新闻Feb 2026

斯洛伐克政府宣布进入国家石油紧急状态

sī 洛 fá kè zhèng fǔ xuān bù jìn rù guó jiā shí yóu jǐn jí zhuàng tài

The Slovak government has declared a national oil emergency.

百度新闻Feb 2026

美政府移民政策支持率创新低 国土安全部发言人...

měi zhèng fǔ yí mín zhèng cè zhī chí lǜ chuàng xīn dī guó tǔ ān quán bù fā yán rén . . .

U.S. Immigration Policy Approval Hits Record Low; Homeland Security Spokesperson...

Tatoeba

他的政权必定会崩溃。

Tā de zhèngquán bìdìng huì bēngkuì.

His regime is bound to collapse.

Tatoeba

为什么美国政府让人们持有枪械?

Wèishénme Měiguó zhèngfǔ ràng rénmen chíyǒu qiāngxiè?

Why does the US government let people have guns?

Tatoeba

你对政治感兴趣吗?

Nǐ duì zhèngzhì gǎn xìngqù ma?

Are you interested in politics?

Tatoeba

这里附近有没有邮政局?

Zhèlǐ fùjìn yǒuméiyǒu yóuzhèngjú?

Is there a post office around here?

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 攵 (script) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced zhèng

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 政 (zhèng) mean in Chinese?
政 (zhèng) primarily means "political." It is classified as HSK Level 5, making it an advanced character. It ranks #150 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 政 have?
政 is written with 9 strokes. The correct stroke order matters for recognition and handwriting speed — practice with the animated guide above to build proper technique.
What is the radical of 政?
The radical associated with 政 is 攵 (rap). This radical appears in many characters related to rap.
What are the components of 政?
政 is composed of: 正 (phonetic), 攵 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰正攵 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 政?
Common words with 政 include: 政府 (zhèng fǔ, "government"); 政治 (zhèng zhì, "politics"); 政策 (zhèng cè, "policy"); 财政 (cái zhèng, "public finance"); 行政 (xíng zhèng, "administration"). There are over 102 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 政 (zhèng)?
Several characters share the pronunciation zhèng: 整 ((bound form) whole), 征 (journey), 症 (symptom), 正 (straight), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 政 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 政 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 政 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear spoken pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

Character data sourced from Unihan (Unicode Consortium), SUBTLEX-CH frequency corpus (Cai & Brysbaert, 2010), and Make Me a Hanzi (stroke data). Collocation strength measured via NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information). Verified by the HanziFeed linguistics team.

HSK classification follows the HSK 3.0 Standard (Center for Language Education and Cooperation, CLEC, 2022 revision). Idiom data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Data last verified: March 2026.