Audit institutions in China are subordinated to the people’s governments, as a part of the state administration.

CNAO is a statutory component of the State Council that is directly under the leadership of the Premier. As the supreme audit institution of China, it organizes and administers audit work of the whole country and reports its work to the State Council.

Under the dual leadership of the administrative heads of their corresponding level governments and the audit institutions at their next higher levels, local audit institutions organize and manage audit work within their jurisdiction. Their audit work should be directed mainly by audit institutions at the next higher levels and reported to their corresponding level governments as well as the next higher level audit institutions.

At present, there are 32 provincial level audit offices (including Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps). The number of audit institutions at the city level and the county level has reached 442 and 2,687 respectively. The staff of audit institutions nationwide now totals about 88,000.

Besides, the governments of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and Macau Special Administrative Region have also established audit institutions (Audit Commission of Hong Kong SAR and Commission of Audit of Macau SAR) in light of Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and Basic Law of the Macau Special Administrative Region respectively. An audit institution was also set up in Taiwan province.