Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party

See also: Leader of the Chinese Communist Party

The chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (Chinese: 中国共产党中央委员会主席; pinyin: Zhōngguó Gòngchǎndǎng Zhōngyāng Wěiyuánhuì Zhǔxí) was the leader of the Chinese Communist Party. The position was established at the 8th National Congress in 1945 and abolished at the 12th National Congress in 1982, being replaced by the general secretary. Offices with the name Chairman of the Central Executive Committee and Chairman of the Central Committee existed in 1922–1923 and 1928–1931, respectively.

Chairman of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party
中国共产党中央委员会主席 (Chinese)
Emblem of the Chinese Communist Party (1942–1996)
Flag of the Chinese Communist Party (1942–1996)
Longest serving Mao Zedong 20 March 1943 – 9 September 1976
Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party
Style	Chairman (主席) (informal) Comrade (同志) (formal)
Type	Party leader supreme leader
Member of	Politburo Standing Committee
Reports to	Central Committee
Seat	Zhongnanhai, Beijing, China
Nominator	Central Committee
Appointer	Central Committee
Term length	Five years, renewable
Constituting instrument	Party Constitution
Precursor	General Secretary (1921–1943)
Formation	20 March 1943 (1943-03-20)
First holder	Mao Zedong
Final holder	Hu Yaobang
Abolished	1 September 1982 (1982-09-01)
Superseded by	General Secretary
Unofficial names	Paramount leader, Lingxiu
Deputy	Vice Chairman (1956–1982)

Chairman of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party
Simplified Chinese	中国共产党中央委员会主席
Traditional Chinese	中國共產黨中央委員會主席
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Zhōngguó Gòngchǎndǎng Zhōngyāng Wěiyuánhuì Zhǔxí
Commonly abbreviated as
Chinese	中共中央主席
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Zhōnggòng Zhōngyāng Zhǔxí

History

Between 1922 and 1925, Chen Duxiu (still Party Secretary) served as chairman of the Central Executive Committee (Chinese: 中央执行委员会委员长), but the name was changed to General Secretary of the Central Executive Committee in 1925. The post was first introduced in March 1943, when the Politburo decided to discharge Zhang Wentian as General Secretary. As his replacement, Mao Zedong, who had been the de facto leader of the party since the Long March, was named Chairman of the Politburo of the CCP Central Committee (Chinese: 中国共产党中央政治局主席). The 7th CCP National Congress introduced the post of Chairman of the Central Committee into the Party Constitution, and in 1956 the General Secretary was given the day-to-day management of the Party Secretariat.

Although Hua Guofeng succeeded Mao as party chairman, by 1978 he had lost power to vice chairman Deng Xiaoping, who at that point had become the de facto leader of China. By the 1980s, the CCP leadership desired to prevent a single leader from rising above the party, as Mao had done. Accordingly, the post of chairman was abolished in 1982. Most of its functions were transferred to the revived post of General Secretary. The party's last chairman, Hu Yaobang, transferred to the post of General Secretary.

Functions

The chairman was elected by the Central Committee in a plenary session and had full powers over the Central Committee, the Politburo, and its Standing Committee.

The 1956 Party Constitution introduced the multiple vice chairman post; since 1945, actual vice chairmanship had been exercised by the Secretariat members. Liu Shaoqi was the highest-ranking vice-chairman from 1956 to 1966.

The 1969 Party Constitution (adopted by the 9th Congress) introduced the post of a single vice chairman, in order to give more authority to Lin Biao as Mao's successor. The 1973 Constitution (adopted by the 10th Congress) re-introduced the collective vice chairmanship. In 1976, Hua Guofeng was named the first vice chairman of the Central Committee, a post previously held unofficially by Liu Shaoqi from 1956 to 1966; Zhou Enlai from 1973 to 1975; and Deng Xiaoping in 1975 in the capacity of "Vice Chairman in charge of the day-to-day work of the Central Committee".

The 1975 Chinese Constitution reinforced the influence of the party on the state. The Central Committee (and, by extension, its chairman) was placed before the National People's Congress. Article 15 made the Chairman the commander-in-chief of the People's Liberation Army ("the Chairman of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party leads all the armed forces of the country"). These changes were reversed by the 1982 Constitution of the People's Republic of China which placed the Party below the State and created a state Central Military Commission (CMC) in parallel to the Party CMC.

List of chairmen

Main article: Leader of the Chinese Communist Party

Chairman of the Central Politburo

Portrait	Name (birth–death)	Term of office			Ref.
		Took office	Left office	Time in office
	Mao Zedong (1893–1976)	20 March 1943	19 June 1945	2 years, 91 days

Chairman of the Central Committee

Portrait	Name (birth–death)	Term of office			Ref.
		Took office	Left office	Time in office
	Mao Zedong (1893–1976)	19 June 1945	9 September 1976 †	31 years, 82 days
	Hua Guofeng (1921–2008)	7 October 1976	28 June 1981	4 years, 264 days
	Hu Yaobang (1915–1989)	29 June 1981	11 September 1982	1 year, 74 days