It is officially elected by the Guizhou Provincial People's Congress and is formally responsible to the Guizhou Provincial People's Congress [zh] and its Standing Committee [zh].

Under the country's one-party system, the governor is subordinate to the secretary of the Guizhou Provincial Committee of the Chinese Communist Party.

The Guizhou Provincial People's Government was founded in December 1949.

Its name was changed to Guizhou Provincial People's Committee (贵州省人民委员会) in February 1955 and subsequently Guizhou Provincial Revolutionary Committee (贵州省革命委员会) in December 1967 during the Cultural Revolution.

It reverted to its former name of Guizhou Provincial People's Government in January 1980.