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China’s Communist Party turns 100
ChinaPolitics

Explainer | Leadership in China’s Communist Party: how general secretary became the country’s top job

  • The power of the position has waxed and waned as the leadership structure has changed
  • In recent decades, the title has been one of three held by the country’s leader at one time

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The role of general secretary was introduced in 1925. Photo: AP
Jun Mai

This is the first in the South China Morning Post’s series of explainers about China’s Communist Party in the lead-up to the party’s centenary in July. In this piece, Jun Mai looks into the power of the party’s general secretary, and how the role has evolved.

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Xi Jinping is often referred to by his ceremonial role as guojia zhuxi, or “state chairman”, a title usually translated into English as “president”. But it is his position as the party’s general secretary that indicates his top status.

The party’s constitution gives the general secretary the power to convene meetings of its inner circles, the seven-member Politburo Standing Committee and the 25-strong Politburo.

The general secretary is also responsible for the secretariat, a party body that oversees ideology, propaganda and personnel appointments, among other party policy areas.

Since 1993, the general secretary has also tended to be the president as well as chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), consolidating power across the party, state and military. The exception was between 2002 and 2004, when Jiang Zemin remained head of the CMC for an extra two years after Hu Jintao took over as general secretary.
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But the general secretary has not always been the foremost leader of the party, which has been through many changes to its leadership structure over the past 100 years.

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China’s Communist Party: everything you need to know
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