Paramount leader

In modern Chinese politics, the paramount leader (simplified Chinese: 最高领导人; traditional Chinese: 最高領導人; pinyin: Zuìgāo Lǐngdǎorén) of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Government of China is an informal term for the most prominent political leader in the People's Republic of China (PRC).[1] The officeholders are usually General Secretary of the Communist Party of China and Chairman of the Central Military Commission.[2] The paramount leader is not, however, a formal position nor an office unto itself. The term gained prominence during the era of Deng Xiaoping (1978–1989), when he was able to wield political power without necessarily holding any official or formally significant party or government positions at any given time (head of state, head of government or General Secretary).

Paramount leader of the People's Republic of China 中华人民共和国最高领导人
Emblem
Incumbent Xi Jinping since 15 November 2012
Style	Comrade
Residence	Zhongnanhai Jade Spring Hill
Nominator	Central Committee of the Communist Party of China
Term length	Five years, no term limits
Inaugural holder	Mao Zedong
Formation	1 October 1949

Paramount leader
Simplified Chinese	最高领导人
Traditional Chinese	最高領導人
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Zuìgāo Lǐngdǎorén

There has been significant overlap between paramount leader status and leadership core status, with a majority but not all of paramount leaders being also leadership cores, though they are separate concepts. The term has been used less frequently to describe Deng's successors, Jiang Zemin, Hu Jintao and Xi Jinping, who have all formally held the offices of General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (Party leader), President of the People's Republic of China and Chairman of the Central Military Commission. Jiang, Hu and Xi are therefore usually referred to as president in the international scene, the title used by most other republican heads of state. However, Deng's successors derive their real power from the post of General Secretary, which is the primary position in the Chinese power structure[3] and generally regarded by scholars as the post whose holder can be considered paramount leader.[4] The President is a largely ceremonial office according to the Constitution,[note 1] and a 2019 report by the United States-China Economic and Security Review Commission, a bipartisan commission within the United States Congress, recommends that the Chinese leader Xi Jinping be called “General Secretary” rather than “President”, arguing that the title "president" incorrectly implies that the Chinese leader is democratically elected.[6]

The current paramount leader, Xi Jinping, is considered to have become paramount leader in November 2012, when he became General Secretary, rather than in March 2013 when he succeeded Hu Jintao as president.[7]

History

Chairman Mao Zedong was the undisputed ruler of Communist China from its beginning in 1949 and held three Chairman offices at once: Chairman of the Communist Party of China, Chairman of the Central Military Commission and Chairman of the People's Republic of China (1954–1959), making him the leader of the party, military and state, respectively.

Following the Cultural Revolution, a rough consensus emerged within the party that the worst excesses were caused by the lack of checks and balances in the exercise of political power and the resulting "rule of personality" by Mao {"The Fall and Rise of China" by Richard Baum.}. Beginning in the 1980s, the leadership experimented with a quasi-separation of powers, whereby the offices of general secretary, president and premier were held by different people.

In 1985, for example, the CPC General Secretary was Hu Yaobang, the Chinese President was Li Xiannian and the Chinese Premier was Zhao Ziyang. However, Deng Xiaoping was still recognized as the core of the leadership during this period. Both Hu and Zhao fell out of favour in the late 1980s, but Deng was able to retain ultimate political control.

The paramount leader label has been applied to Deng's successors, Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao, though it is generally recognized that they did not wield as much power as Deng despite their having held more offices of leadership. There has also been a greater emphasis on collective leadership, whereby the top leader is a first among equals style figure, exercising power with the consensus of the Politburo Standing Committee.[1] This was particularly apparent during the tenure of Hu Jintao.[note 2] Beginning in 1993, Jiang formally held the three offices that made him the head of the party, state and military:

• General Secretary of the Communist Party of China: the party leader and the primary position of the state.
• Chairman of the Central Military Commission: Supreme Military Command of the People's Liberation Army.
• President of the People's Republic of China: the largely ceremonial head of state under the 1982 Constitution.[8]

When Jiang left the offices of General Secretary and President in 2002 and 2003, respectively, he held onto the position of Chairman of the Central Military Commission. Military power had always been an important facet in the exercise of political power in Communist-ruled China and as such holding the top military post meant that Jiang retained some formal power. When Jiang stepped down from his last formal post between 2002 and 2004, it was ambiguous who the paramount leader was at the time. Hu Jintao held the same trio of positions during his years in power. Hu transitioned all three positions onto his successor Xi Jinping between November 2012, when Xi became General Secretary of the Communist Party and Chairman of the Central Military Commission; and March 2013, when Xi became president. Since Xi's ascendance to power, two new bodies, the National Security Commission and Central Leading Group for Comprehensively Deepening Reforms, have been established, ostensibly concentrating political power in the paramount leader to a greater degree than anyone since Deng.[9] These bodies were tasked with establishing the general policy direction for national security as well as the agenda for economic reform. Both groups are headed by the General Secretary.[10]

List of leaders

See also: Generations of Chinese leadership

  First administration   Second administration   Third administration    Hu–Wen Administration    Xi–Li Administration

Bold offices refer to the highest position in the Communist Party of China.

Picture	Name	Offices held	Period		Ideology	CPC leaders	Presidents	Premiers
	Mao Zedong 毛泽东 (1893–1976)	Chairman of the CPC Central Politburo	20 March 1943 – 28 September 1956	1 October 1949 ↓ 9 September 1976 (26 years, 344 days)	Mao Zedong Thought	Himself	Himself Liu Shaoqi Post abolished	Zhou Enlai Hua Guofeng
		Chairman of the CPC Central Secretariat
		Chairman of the CPC Central Committee	19 June 1945 – 9 September 1976
		Chairman of the PRC Central People's Government	1 October 1949 – 27 September 1954
		Chairman of the CPPCC National Committee	9 October 1949 – 25 December 1954
		Chairman of the CPC Central Military Commission	8 September 1954 – 9 September 1976
		Chairman of the PRC	27 September 1954 – 27 April 1959
	Hua Guofeng 华国锋 (1921–2008)	Premier of the PRC State Council	4 February 1976 – 10 September 1980	9 September 1976 ↓ 22 December 1978 (2 years, 104 days)	Two Whatevers (Mao Zedong Thought)	Himself	Post abolished	Himself
		First Vice Chairman of the CPC Central Committee	7 April 1976 – 7 October 1976
		Chairman of the CPC Central Committee	7 October 1976 – 28 June 1981
		Chairman of the CPC Central Military Commission
	Deng Xiaoping 邓小平 (1904–1997)	First Vice Premier of the PRC State Council	17 January 1975 – 18 June 1983	22 December 1978 ↓ 9 November 1989 (10 years, 322 days)	Deng Xiaoping Theory (Socialism with Chinese characteristics)	Hua Guofeng Hu Yaobang Zhao Ziyang Jiang Zemin	Post abolished Li Xiannian Yang Shangkun	Hua Guofeng Zhao Ziyang Li Peng
		Chairman of the CPPCC National Committee	8 March 1978 – 17 June 1983
		Chairman of the CPC Central Military Commission	28 June 1981 – 9 November 1989
		Chairman of the CPC Central Advisory Commission	13 September 1982 – 2 November 1987
		Chairman of the PRC Central Military Commission	6 June 1983 – 19 March 1990
	Jiang Zemin 江泽民 (1926–present)	General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee	24 June 1989 – 15 November 2002	9 November 1989 ↓ 19 September 2004 (14 years, 315 days)	Three Represents	Himself	Yang Shangkun Himself	Li Peng Zhu Rongji
		Chairman of the CPC Central Military Commission	9 November 1989 – 19 September 2004
		Chairman of the PRC Central Military Commission	19 March 1990 – 13 March 2005
		President of the PRC	27 March 1993 – 15 March 2003
	Hu Jintao 胡锦涛 (1942–present)	General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee	15 November 2002 – 15 November 2012	19 September 2004 ↓ 15 November 2012 (8 years, 57 days)	Scientific Outlook on Development (Socialist Harmonious Society)	Himself		Wen Jiabao
		President of the PRC	15 March 2003 – 14 March 2013
		Chairman of the CPC Central Military Commission	19 September 2004 – 15 November 2012
		Chairman of the PRC Central Military Commission	13 March 2005 – 14 March 2013
	Xi Jinping 习近平 (1953–present)	General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee	15 November 2012 – incumbent	15 November 2012 ↓ Incumbent (7 years, 274 days)	Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era (Chinese Dream)	Himself		Li Keqiang
		Chairman of the CPC Central Military Commission
		President of the PRC	14 March 2013 – incumbent
		Chairman of the PRC Central Military Commission
		Leader of the CPC Central Comprehensively Deepening Reforms Commission	30 December 2013 – incumbent
		Chairman of the CPC National Security Commission	25 January 2014 – incumbent

Notes

1. The prestigious office of President, first held by Mao Zedong and then officially translated into English as "Chairman," was abolished during the Cultural Revolution. The Constitution of 1982 restored powers and functions of the President of the People's Republic of China as head of state, and specified that the official translation was "President," even though the Chinese name for the office, 主席; Zhǔxí, is unchanged and means "chairman" in other contexts, contrasted with 总统; 總統; Zǒngtǒng for the presidents of republics and other countries. This office does not have executive authority comparable to the President of the United States since most of its powers are ceremonial. The President of China can therefore be compared with the President of Germany and contrasted with the President of India, who in theory possesses great executive powers, which are in practice exercised by the Union Council of Ministers.[5]
2. In official pronouncements when describing the existing leadership of the party, state media referred to the party under Hu as the party center with comrade Hu Jintao as General Secretary in contrast to the party under Jiang being described as the party center with comrade Jiang Zemin as its core (核心). Some analysts saw this change as a signal that collective leadership was being embraced over personal leadership.

References

1. "How China is ruled" Archived 16 January 2007 at the Wayback Machine.
2. Li, Nan (26 February 2018). "Party Congress Reshuffle Strengthens Xi's Hold on Central Military Commission". The Jamestown Foundation . Retrieved 27 May 2020. Xi Jinping has introduced major institutional changes to strengthen his control of the PLA in his roles as Party leader and chair of the Central Military Commission (CMC)...
3. Chris Buckley and Adam Wu (10 March 2018). "Ending Term Limits for China's Xi Is a Big Deal. Here's Why. - Is the presidency powerful in China". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 12 March 2018. Retrieved 12 March 2018. In China, the political job that matters most is the general secretary of the Communist Party. The party controls the military and domestic security forces, and sets the policies that the government carries out. China’s presidency lacks the authority of the American and French presidencies.
4. "Xi's here to stay: China leader tipped to outstay term". Business Insider. 9 August 2016. Retrieved 23 September 2017. A lot of analysts now see it as a given" that Xi will seek to stay party general secretary, the country's most powerful post, said Christopher K. Johnson, a former CIA analyst and now China specialist at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies..
5. "Krishna Kanta Handique State Open University" Archived 2 May 2014 at the Wayback Machine. "Executive: The President of the Chinese Republic".
6. O’Keeffe and, Kate; Ferek, Katy Stech (14 November 2019). "Stop Calling China's Xi Jinping 'President,' U.S. Panel Says". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on 15 November 2019. Retrieved 16 November 2019..
7. "A simple guide to the Chinese government". South China Morning Post. Archived from the original on 13 May 2018. Retrieved 12 May 2018. Xi Jinping is the most powerful figure in the Chinese political system. He is the President of China, but his real influence comes from his position as the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party..
8. "Section 2, Article 80–81" Archived 12 August 2010 at the Wayback Machine.
9. "习近平频现身成常态 将回归"领导核心"？". Duowei News. 7 January 2014. Archived from the original on 12 August 2014. Retrieved 5 August 2014.
10. "How the Chinese government works". South China Morning Post. Archived from the original on 12 May 2018. Retrieved 12 May 2018. Xi Jinping is the most powerful figure in China's political system, and his influence mainly comes from his position as the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party.

See also

• Chairman of the Central Military Commission
• Generations of Chinese leadership
• Leadership core
• List of Chinese leaders
• List of leaders of the Communist Party of China
  • Chairman of the Communist Party of China
  • General Secretary of the Communist Party of China
• Maximum Leader (disambiguation)
• Primus inter pares
• Orders of precedence in the People's Republic of China
• Supreme leader