One institution with two names

"One institution with two names" (Chinese: 一个机构两块牌子; pinyin: yīgè jīgòu liǎng kuài páizi; lit.

This type of arrangement was historically common until the mid-1980s but has been extensively revived by reforms which began in 2017.

In the latter situation, two institutions or agencies retain their distinct structure and personnel and only share office spaces and physical resources.

For example, the United Front Work Department (UFWD) (a communist party institution) uses the name of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office (OCAO) (a state institution), which it absorbed in 2018, when making statements related to overseas Chinese affairs.

In some cases, the nominal organization can seemingly retain their internal structures (e.g. the China National Space Administration seemingly has a large internal structure and is a retained name for the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology).