Members of the party group and vice ministers of the Ministry of Civil Affairs were deployed by the central government, while the cadres of department heads and below were deployed by the Organization Department of the Central Government and the Political and Industrial Group of the State Council.

Cheng Zihua became the first minister and party secretary of the Ministry of Civil Affairs of the People's Republic of China.

[4] In March 1998, the State Council carried out institutional reforms and, in accordance with the program approved at the first meeting of the Ninth National People's Congress, transferred the rural social pension insurance intelligence of the Ministry of Civil Affairs to the Ministry of Labor and Social Security.

[7][8][9] On August 31, 2020, according to the National Development and Reform Commission's Implementation Opinions on Comprehensively Pushing Forward the Reform of Delinking Industry Associations and Chambers of Commerce from Administrative Organs and the Notice on Doing a Good Job in Comprehensively Pushing Forward the Reform of Delinking National Industry Associations and Chambers of Commerce from Administrative Organs, 18 industry associations (chambers of commerce) such as the China Association of Professional Managers, which were formerly under the supervision of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, were separated from the Ministry of Civil Affairs, registered directly and operated independently in accordance with the law.

[11] On March 11, 2023, the First Session of the Fourteenth National People's Congress passed the Decision of the First Session of the Fourteenth National People's Congress on the Institutional Reform Program of the State Council, approving the Institutional Reform Program of the State Council, in which the competence of the work on the elderly was transferred to the Ministry of Civil Affairs.