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
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.
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.
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.