Chinaportal |
The president of the People's Republic of China was created in 1954 when the first constitution consolidated the system of government in the People's Republic of China. At the time, the title was translated into English as State Chairman. The position was abolished between 1975 and 1982 with the functions of state representative being performed by the chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress. The presidency was revived under the fourth constitution in 1982.
Portrait | Name (Lifespan) | Term of office | Vice Chairmen | Paramount leader | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
– | Mao Zedong 毛泽东 (1893–1976) | 1 October 1949 | 27 September 1954 | Zhu De Liu Shaoqi Soong Ching-ling Li Jishen Zhang Lan Gao Gang | Himself | ||
Mao also held more powerful offices as Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party and Chairman of the Central Military Commission, making him the Paramount leader of China. |
S. No. | Portrait | Name (Lifespan) Constituency | Term of office | NPC | Vice Chairmen | Paramount leader | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Mao Zedong 毛泽东 (1893–1976) Beijing At-large | 27 September 1954 | 27 April 1959 | I | Zhu De | Mao Zedong | |
2 | Liu Shaoqi 刘少奇 (1898–1969) Beijing At-large | 27 April 1959 | 3 January 1965 | II | Soong Ching-ling Dong Biwu | ||
3 January 1965 [1] | 31 October 1968 [2] | III | |||||
acting | Soong Ching-ling 宋庆龄 (1893–1981) Shanghai At-large | 31 October 1968 | 24 February 1972 | III | Dong Biwu | ||
acting | Dong Biwu 董必武 (1886–1975) Hubei At-large | 24 February 1972 | 17 January 1975 | III | Soong Ching-ling | ||
Portrait | Name (Lifespan) Constituency | Term of office | NPC | Vice Chairmen | Paramount leader | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
– | Zhu De 朱德 (1886–1976) Sichuan At-large | 17 January 1975 | 6 July 1976 | IV | Soong Ching-ling [3] Dong Biwu [3] (died 2 April 1975) and others | Mao Zedong | ||
– | Soong Ching-ling 宋庆龄 (1893–1981) Shanghai At-large | 6 July 1976 | 5 March 1978 | Mao Zedong Hua Guofeng | ||||
After Zhu De's death, Soong Ching-ling served as acting Chairwoman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress for the remainder of the 4th National People's Congress's term.[ citation needed ] She was a member of the Revolutionary Committee of the Kuomintang. | ||||||||
– | Ye Jianying 叶剑英 (1897–1986) PLA | 5 March 1978 | 18 June 1983 | V | Soong Ching-ling and others | Hua Guofeng Deng Xiaoping |
Portrait | Name (Birth–Death) Constituency | Term of office | NPC | Notes | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
– | Soong Ching-ling 宋庆龄 (1893–1981) Shanghai At-large | 16 May 1981 | 29 May 1981 | V | Shortly before her death, Soong Ching-ling, a member of the Revolutionary Committee of the Kuomintang, was named Honorary Chairwoman of the People's Republic of China. |
Portrait | Name (Lifespan) Constituency | Term of office | NPC — (Election) | Vice President | Paramount leader | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
3 | Li Xiannian 李先念 (1909–1992) Hubei At-large | 18 June 1983 | 8 April 1988 | VI — (62.5%) | Ulanhu | Deng Xiaoping | |
During Li's term, China undertook major reforms in foreign policy, beginning to open up to the outside world. Li, who took on an important role in the ousting of the Gang of Four, became the first President of the People's Republic to visit the United States. He was also the first state president to visit North Korea. In 1984, Li met with U.S. President Ronald Reagan during Reagan's visit to China, notably discussing the status of Taiwan with the President. After leaving office as President, Li was then named Chairman of the National Committee of the CPPCC. [4] | |||||||
4 | Yang Shangkun 杨尚昆 (1907–1998) PLA | 8 April 1988 | 27 March 1993 | VII — (66.8%) | Wang Zhen | Deng Xiaoping Jiang Zemin | |
An elder from the party's revolutionary days, Yang was a political survivor of the Cultural Revolution. During his presidency, Yang promoted economic reform but opposed political liberalization. Yang reached the height of his political career after the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre, but his organized opposition to Jiang Zemin's leadership led Deng to force Yang to retire. Yang served as Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission between 1983 and 1993. | |||||||
5 | Jiang Zemin 江泽民 (1926–2022) Shanghai At-large | 27 March 1993 | 15 March 1998 | VIII — (68.4%) | Rong Yiren | Himself | |
15 March 1998 | 15 March 2003 | IX — (71.5%) | Hu Jintao | ||||
Once the mayor and party secretary of Shanghai, Jiang's assumption of the presidency in 1993 marked a return to the centralization of major titles at the national level – Jiang also held the more powerful offices of General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and Chairman of the Central Military Commission since 1989. Under Jiang's leadership, China experienced substantial developmental growth with continued reforms, oversaw the handover of Hong Kong from the United Kingdom and Macau from Portugal, and improved its relations with the outside world while the Communist Party maintained its tight control over the government. Jiang was criticized for being too concerned about his personal image at home, and too conciliatory towards Russia and the United States abroad. [5] | |||||||
6 | Hu Jintao 胡锦涛 (born 1942) Tibet At-large (until 2008) Jiangsu At-large (from 2008) | 15 March 2003 | 15 March 2008 | X — (72.9%) | Zeng Qinghong | Himself | |
15 March 2008 | 14 March 2013 | XI — (70.27%) | Xi Jinping | ||||
Hu, long having been anointed by Deng as Jiang's successor, took over the presidency in 2003, and also held the offices of General Secretary of the Communist Party and Chairman of the Central Military Commission. Hu presided over nearly a decade of consistent economic growth and a relatively smooth recovery from the Global Financial Crisis. China emerged as a major world power during Hu's term.[ citation needed ] | |||||||
7 | Xi Jinping 习近平 (born 1953) Shanghai At-large (until 2018) Inner Mongolia At-large (2018–2023) Jiangsu At-large (from 2023) | 14 March 2013 | 17 March 2018 | XII — (72.21%) | Li Yuanchao | Himself | |
17 March 2018 | 10 March 2023 | XIII — (71.10%) | Wang Qishan | ||||
10 March 2023 | Incumbent | XIV — (70.60%) | Han Zheng | ||||
Xi became President in 2013, and also held the offices of General Secretary of the Communist Party and Chairman of the Central Military Commission since 2012. Xi increased the profile of the office of president in foreign affairs, for example receiving other heads of state during the 2015 China Victory Day Parade, going on high-profile visits to the United Kingdom and the United States, and making an important address at the Global Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Under his leadership, Xi strengthened mass surveillance and launched Xinjiang internment camps. Xi presided over anti-corruption campaign. In foreign policy, Xi advocated for "Wolf warrior diplomacy". Term limits for the president were removed in 2018.[ citation needed ] |
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victorious in the Chinese Civil War against the Kuomintang. In 1949, Mao proclaimed the establishment of the People's Republic of China. Since then, the CCP has governed China and has had sole control over the People's Liberation Army (PLA). Successive leaders of the CCP have added their own theories to the party's constitution, which outlines the party's ideology, collectively referred to as socialism with Chinese characteristics. As of 2023, the CCP has more than 98 million members, making it the second largest political party by membership in the world after India's Bharatiya Janata Party.
The premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, commonly called the premier of China, is the head of government of China and leader of the State Council. The premier is the second-highest ranking person in China's political system, under the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party /president, and holds the highest rank in the civil service of the central government.
The Constitution of the People's Republic of China is the supreme law of the People's Republic of China. It was adopted by the 5th National People's Congress on December 4, 1982, with further revisions about every five years. It is the fourth constitution in PRC history, superseding the 1954 constitution, the 1975 constitution, and the 1978 constitution.
Rosamond Soong Ch'ing-ling was a Chinese political figure. As the third wife of Sun Yat-sen, then Premier of the Kuomintang and President of the Republic of China, she was often referred to as Madame Sun Yat-sen. She was a member of the Soong family and, together with her siblings, played a prominent role in China's politics prior to and after 1949.
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The General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party is the head of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Since 1989, the CCP general secretary has been the paramount leader of the PRC.
The orders of precedence in China is the ranking of political leaders in China for the purposes of event protocol and to arrange the ordering of names in official news bulletins, both written and televised. It is also sometimes used to assess perceived level of political power. Although there is no formally published ranking, there is usually an established convention and protocol, and the relative positions of Chinese political figures can usually be deduced from the order in meetings and especially by the time and order in which figures are covered by the official media. Since 1982, the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party has been the highest-ranking official in the People's Republic of China (PRC).
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Paramount leader is an informal term for the most important political figure in the People's Republic of China (PRC). The paramount leader typically controls the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the People's Liberation Army (PLA), often holding the titles of CCP General Secretary and Chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC). The state representative (president) or head of government (premier) are not necessarily paramount leader—under China's party-state system, CCP roles are politically more important than state titles.
Generations of Chinese leadership is a term historians use to characterize distinct periods of the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and, by extension, successive changes in the ideology of the CCP. Historians have studied various periods in the development of the government of the People's Republic of China (PRC) by reference to these "generations".
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The 18th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party was held November 8-15, 2012 at the Great Hall of the People. It was preceded by the 17th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party. Due to term limits and age restrictions, seven of the nine members of the powerful Politburo Standing Committee (PSC) retired during the Congress, including Hu Jintao, who was replaced by Xi Jinping as General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party. The Congress elected the 18th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, and saw the number of Politburo Standing Committee seats reduced from nine to seven. It was succeeded by the 19th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party.
The Constitutional history of the People's Republic of China describes the evolution of its Constitutional system. The first Constitution of the People's Republic of China was promulgated in 1954. After two intervening versions enacted in 1975 and 1978, the current Constitution was promulgated in 1982. There were significant differences between each of these versions, and the 1982 Constitution has subsequently been amended several times. In addition, changing Constitutional conventions have led to significant changes in the structure of the Chinese government in the absence of changes in the text of the Constitution.
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The succession of power in China since 1949 takes place in the context of a one-party state under the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Despite the guarantee of universal franchise in the constitution, the appointment of the Paramount leader lies largely in the hands of his predecessor and the powerful factions that control the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party.
The President of the People's Republic of China, commonly called the President of China, is the state representative of the People's Republic of China, which on its own is a ceremonial office and has no real power in China's political system. However, since 1993, the post has been held by the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and chairman of the Central Military Commission, who is China's de facto leader.