HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, officially the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, is a political body that comprises the top leaders of the
Chinese Communist Party The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victoriou ...
(CCP). It is currently composed of 205 full members and 171 alternate members (see
list A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to: People * List (surname) Organizations * List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America * SC Germania List, German rugby union ...
). Members are nominally elected once every five years by the
National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party The National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (; literally: Chinese Communist Party National Representatives Congress) is a party congress that is held every five years. The National Congress is theoretically the highest body within th ...
. In practice, the selection process is done privately, usually through consultation of the CCP's
Politburo A politburo () or political bureau is the executive committee for communist parties. It is present in most former and existing communist states. Names The term "politburo" in English comes from the Russian ''Politbyuro'' (), itself a contraction ...
and its corresponding
Standing Committee A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly. A committee is not itself considered to be a form of assembly. Usually, the assembly sends matters into a committee as a way to explore them more ...
. The Central Committee is, formally, the "party's highest organ of authority" when the National Congress is not in a
plenary session A plenary session or plenum is a session of a conference which all members of all parties are to attend. Such a session may include a broad range of content, from keynotes to panel discussions, and is not necessarily related to a specific styl ...
. According to the CCP's constitution, the Central Committee is vested with the power to elect the
General Secretary Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the organization. The term is derived ...
and the members of the Politburo and its Standing Committee, as well as the Central Military Commission. It endorses the composition of the
Secretariat Secretariat may refer to: * Secretariat (administrative office) * Secretariat (horse) Secretariat (March 30, 1970 – October 4, 1989), also known as Big Red, was a champion American thoroughbred horse racing, racehorse who is the ninth winne ...
and the
Central Commission for Discipline Inspection The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) is the highest internal control institution of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), tasked with enforcing internal rules and regulations and combating corruption and malfeasance in the par ...
. It also oversees the work of various executive national organs of the CCP. The administrative activities of the Central Committee are carried out by the Central Committee's General Office. The General Office forms the support staff of the central organs that work on the Central Committee's behalf in between plenums. The Committee usually convenes at least once a year at a plenary session ("plenum"), and functions as a top forum for discussion about relevant policy issues. The Committee operates, however, on the principle of
democratic centralism Democratic centralism is a practice in which political decisions reached by voting processes are binding upon all members of the political party. It is mainly associated with Leninism, wherein the party's political vanguard of professional revo ...
; i.e., once a decision is made, the entire body speaks with one voice. The role of the Central Committee has varied throughout history. While it generally exercises power through formal procedures defined in the party constitution, the ability for it to affect outcomes of national-level personnel decisions is limited, as that function has generally been, in practice, carried out by the Politburo and retired party elders who retain influence. Nonetheless, Central Committee plenums function as venues whereby policy is discussed, fine-tuned, and publicly released in the form of "resolutions" or "decisions". The Central Committee's plenums typically open and close in the State Banquet Hall of the
Great Hall of the People The Great Hall of the People is a state building located at the western edge of Tiananmen Square in Beijing. It is used for legislative and ceremonial activities by the government of the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the ruling Chinese Co ...
, with the working meetings of the plenum being held at the military run
Jingxi Hotel The Jingxi Hotel is a hotel located in the Haidian District of Beijing, China, located near the Military Museum and Defense Ministry and run by the Agency for Offices Administration of the Central Military Commission. The hotel is heavily guarde ...
in Beijing.


Function

According to the Constitution of the Chinese Communist Party, the Central Committee is tasked with "carrying out the decisions of the National Congress, leading the work of the party, and representing the party internationally." The Central Committee is therefore technically the "party's highest organ of authority" when the National Congress is not in session. The National Congress is convened only once every five years, so the Central Committee can be called upon in the interim to make extremely far-reaching decisions, or at least legitimize a change in direction mandated by the Politburo or other party leaders. The Central Committee must also be theoretically convened to prepare for a National Congress; for example, to determine its dates, delegate selection, agenda, and so on. The Central Committee has the power to elect the General Secretary and the members of the Politburo, its Standing Committee, and the Central Military Commission. These elections take place in the form of confirmation votes; i.e., there is only one candidate, a delegate can choose to vote for or against or abstain for that candidate. In some instances write-in candidates may also be allowed. In practice, for important posts such as the General Secretary or the Politburo Standing Committee, there is no known occasion since 1949 where the Central Committee voted against a candidate already vetted by the top party leadership in advance. The Central Committee also confirms membership of the Secretariat, the organ in charge of executing party policy, whose membership is determined through nomination by the Politburo. The Central Committee oversees the work of many powerful national organizations of the party, including the
Propaganda Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded ...
,
Organization An organization or organisation (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), is an entity—such as a company, an institution, or an association—comprising one or more people and having a particular purpose. The word is derived from ...
, International Liaison, and
United Front A united front is an alliance of groups against their common enemies, figuratively evoking unification of previously separate geographic fronts and/or unification of previously separate armies into a front. The name often refers to a political a ...
departments, among others.


History


Early history

The Central Committee's role has varied throughout history. It was founded in 1927 as a successor organization to the "Central Executive Committee" (), a group of party leaders charged with executing party work during the pre-revolutionary days of the CCP. Over the next several decades it served to confirm the party leadership lineup and legitimize military, strategic, and foreign relations decisions of the party. In practice, power was concentrated in a small group of military and political leaders (the Secretariat or the Politburo), and, beginning at the
Zunyi Conference The Zunyi Conference () was a meeting of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in January 1935 during the Long March. This meeting involved a power struggle between the leadership of Bo Gu and Otto Braun and the opposition led by Mao Zedong. The re ...
in 1935, Mao held great power personally. Moreover, during the
Second Sino-Japanese war The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) or War of Resistance (Chinese term) was a military conflict that was primarily waged between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. The war made up the Chinese theater of the wider Pacific Th ...
and the
Chinese Civil War The Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang-led government of the Republic of China and forces of the Chinese Communist Party, continuing intermittently since 1 August 1927 until 7 December 1949 with a Communist victory on m ...
between 1937 and 1949, the Central Committee rarely convened, partly because of the logistical difficulties of bringing together leading cadres involved in different theatres of war and agitation. Beginning in 1949 at the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Central Committee gradually transformed from a revolutionary organ to a governing one, though again the day-to-day work and most political power resided with a few leaders, most notably the Politburo, then ''de facto'' chaired by
Liu Shaoqi Liu Shaoqi ( ; 24 November 189812 November 1969) was a Chinese revolutionary, politician, and theorist. He was Chairman of the NPC Standing Committee from 1954 to 1959, First Vice Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party from 1956 to 1966 and C ...
, and the Secretariat, then under Deng Xiaoping. Although the Central Committee was required to convene at least once a year, it did not convene at all in 1951–53, 1960, 1963–65, and 1967. Informal and 'extraordinary' mechanisms were sometimes used for the purposes of discussing party policy, for example, the
Seven Thousand Cadres Conference The Seven Thousand Cadres Conference ( zh, s=七千人大会, t=七千人大會), or 7000 Cadres Conference, was one of the largest work conferences ever of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) which took place in Beijing, China from 11 January - 7 Feb ...
in 1962, meant to be a summation of the lessons of the Great Leap Forward. Mao did not hold absolute power over the Central Committee, as evidenced by the debates surrounding the policies of the Great Leap Forward, as well as the economic policies of the early 1960s. However, Mao used Central Committee meetings as a platform to project authority or legitimize decisions which have been made in advance, such as at the
Lushan Conference The Lushan Conference was a meeting of the top leaders of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) held between July and August 1959. The CCP Politburo met in an "expanded session" (''Kuoda Huiyi'') between July 2 and August 1, followed by the 8th Plenu ...
of 1959, when the Central Committee ratified the decision to denounce
Peng Dehuai Peng Dehuai (; October 24, 1898November 29, 1974) was a prominent Chinese Communist military leader, who served as China's Defense Minister from 1954 to 1959. Peng was born into a poor peasant family, and received several years of primary edu ...
, who had spoken out in opposition of the
Great Leap Forward The Great Leap Forward (Second Five Year Plan) of the People's Republic of China (PRC) was an economic and social campaign led by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 1958 to 1962. CCP Chairman Mao Zedong launched the campaign to reconstruc ...
. During the early stages of the
Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goal ...
, the Central Committee essentially ceased to function; it was convened in August 1966 (11th Plenum of the 8th CC) to cement decisions already made by Mao on launching the Cultural Revolution. Mao faced some opposition at the 11th Plenum but ultimately most delegates were goaded into ratifying Mao's decisions. Many members were politically disgraced or purged thereafter. The Committee was then convened again in October 1968 (12th Plenum) to ratify the decision to expel then head of state Liu Shaoqi from the Party. At the 12th plenum, less than half the members actually attended, as many had fallen victim to the Cultural Revolution. In a letter to Mao "evaluating" the members of the Central Committee at the time,
Kang Sheng Kang Sheng (; 4 November 1898 – 16 December 1975) was a Chinese Communist politician best known for having overseen the CCP's internal security and intelligence apparatus during the early 1940s and again at the height of the Cultural Revolut ...
wrote that some 70% of CC members were considered "traitors, spies, or otherwise politically unreliable". The Central Committee membership at the 9th Party Congress in April 1969 was largely handpicked by Mao and a small group of radical allies. The decisions at the Congress were later deemed to be "wholly and absolutely wrong" by official party historians.


Since economic reforms of 1978

Since economic reforms began in 1978, the Central Committee has usually been composed of the leading figures of the party, government, the provinces, and the military. In contrast to Party Congresses, which have always been essentially ceremonial exercises, full meetings of the Central Committee have occasionally emerged as arenas in which there were substantive debates and decisions on party policy. An example of this was the Third Plenary Session of the 11th CCP Central Committee in 1978, at which China formally embarked on a project of
economic reform Microeconomic reform (or often just economic reform) comprises policies directed to achieve improvements in economic efficiency, either by eliminating or reducing distortions in individual sectors of the economy or by reforming economy-wide polici ...
. Deng Xiaoping also attempted to increase the level of "intra party democracy" in the 1980s by introducing so-called "more candidates than seats" election method (''Cha'e xuanju''). The ''Cha'e'' method meant that not everyone who was nominated would be elected to the Central Committee. Despite experimenting with power separation on a broad scale in the 1980s, including the separation of party and state leadership positions, real decision-making power continued to reside in the hands of a dozen or so party elites, including party elders that formed the
Central Advisory Commission The Central Advisory Commission () (CAC) was a body of the Chinese Communist Party that existed during the era of the paramount leadership of Deng Xiaoping. The body was supposed to provide "political assistance and consultation" to the Party' ...
(later abolished). For instance, the decision to crack down on the
1989 Tiananmen Square protests The Tiananmen Square protests, known in Chinese as the June Fourth Incident (), were student-led demonstrations held in Tiananmen Square, Beijing during 1989. In what is known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre, or in Chinese the June Fourth ...
, and on top leadership changes in its aftermath, such as the purge of then General Secretary
Zhao Ziyang Zhao Ziyang ( zh, 赵紫阳; pronounced , 17 October 1919 – 17 January 2005) was a Chinese politician. He was the third premier of the People's Republic of China from 1980 to 1987, vice chairman of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 198 ...
, were made by "party elders" and a small group of top leaders, without first convening the Central Committee. Zhao questioned the legality of his removal in his memoirs released in 2006. While Central Committee meetings do not usually serve as forums for substantive debate, they have sometimes 'fine-tuned' the policies agreed upon at the Politburo level. But the Central Committee does not, by convention, overturn policies decided at higher levels. The Central Committee is larger and has a somewhat more diverse ideological spectrum than the Politburo. Since its plenary sessions is a rare event that concentrates almost all of China's top leaders in one location, it could also be seen as a convenient venue for informal deal-making.


21st Century

Hu Jintao's administration (2002–2012) attempted to embrace collective leadership, as well as more "intra-party democracy"; Hu was not a strong "core" figure in the same sense as Mao or Deng Xiaoping. The Central Committee thus gained more prominence as a ''bona fide'' consultation body. In 2003, Hu also cancelled the traditional August leadership retreat at the coastal town of
Beidaihe Beidaihe District () is a popular beach resort and a district of the city of Qinhuangdao, Hebei province on China's Bohai Sea coast. It has an area of and, , a population of 66,000, as well as a coastline of . It is also known as a birding have ...
, while giving more media coverage to the Central Committee plenums held in the fall. This was seen as an indication that Hu wanted to eschew informal decision-making by the handful of elites in favour of "inner-party democracy" involving bodies such as the Central Committee. However, the Beidaihe meetings resumed in July 2007, when political deliberation took place in anticipation of the 17th Party Congress; the same Bedaihe retreat also took place in 2011 in anticipation of the
18th Party Congress 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 and age limits restrictions, seven o ...
. This indicated that important personnel and policy decisions continued to be the domain of a small group of elites at the very top of the party hierarchy. Since the 17th Party Congress, the Central Committee has seen an increase in the number of regional leadership figures. The 17th Central Committee formed with every province-level Party Secretary and Governor gaining a full seat on the Central Committee. The rise of regional party representation came at the expense of that of government ministries. Since Xi Jinping's rise to power at the 18th Party Congress, the Central Committee plenums in 2013 and 2014 were given significant media coverage, as they marked the beginning of another round of comprehensive economic and social reforms (2013) and legal reforms (2014), respectively. In 2016 session of the Central Committee plenum, focus was mainly on in-party discipline and supervision, which gained a significant media coverage in China and abroad.


Structure and membership selection

The Central Committee has full members (委员 – ''weiyuan'') and alternate or candidate members (候补委员 – ''houbuweiyuan''). The practice of having "full" and "alternate" members is consistent with other Leninist parties in history, such as the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union "Hymn of the Bolshevik Party" , headquarters = 4 Staraya Square, Moscow , general_secretary = Vladimir Lenin (first) Mikhail Gorbachev (last) , founded = , banned = , founder = Vladimir Lenin , newspaper ...
or the
Communist Party of Vietnam The Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV), also known as the Vietnamese Communist Party (VCP), is the founding and sole legal party of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Founded in 1930 by Hồ Chí Minh, the CPV became the ruling party of North ...
. Members are elected by National Congresses through a confirmation vote (i.e., vote "yes", "no", or abstain) on a candidate list, where the number of candidates exceed the number of available seats. Unlike the Politburo, whose membership has historically been determined by informal deliberations that include incumbent Politburo members and retired Politburo Standing Committee members, the method of candidate selection for the Central Committee membership receives less coverage, though it appears to be managed by the incumbent Politburo and its Standing Committee. Since the 1980s membership patterns in the Central Committee have gradually stabilized. For example, provincial governors and party secretaries are almost guaranteed a seat on the Central Committee. The primary difference between full members and alternate members is that full members have voting rights. Alternate members attend Central Committee plenary sessions, and can presumably voice their views on issues, but do not have the right to vote. At party plenary sessions, members of the Politburo seats at the front of the auditorium or meeting hall, facing the rest of the Central Committee. Full members are ordered by protocol, and seated, according to "
surname stroke order The surname stroke order () is a system for the collation of Chinese surnames. It arose as an impartial method of categorization of the order in which names appear in official documentation or in ceremonial procedure without any line of hierarchy ...
" (''xingshi bihua paiming''), an impartial ordering system that is roughly equivalent of alphabetizing the names. Alternate members follow a different protocol sequence: they are arranged by the number of votes received when they were elected at the previous Party Congress. Alternate members may be elevated to full members if a full member dies in office, resigns, or is removed from the body. Priority of ascension to full member status is given to the alternate member who received the highest number of votes in favour at the previous Party Congress. Membership changes, such as the expulsion of a full member or an elevation of an alternate member, are confirmed through passing a formally adopted resolution at Central Committee plenary sessions.


Contemporary composition


Full members

While it is not a requirement in theory, the body has been customarily composed of officials of provincial-ministerial ranking and above, with a few exceptions. For example, officials holding, or expected to hold the following positions at the time of a new party congress can be generally expected to hold a seat on the Central Committee: * The party chiefs and governors of provinces (mayors of direct-controlled municipalities and chairpersons of autonomous regions) * The ministers and minister-level commissioners of the State Council of the People's Republic of China * The heads of the military-region level organizations of the People's Liberation Army, including the heads of the PLA departments under the Central Military Commission * Ministerial-level heads of the party organizations which report directly to the Central Committee, including the chiefs of the
General Office A General Office (also known as "administrative office") is an important administrative political organ in the communist party organizations and communist countries (such as China, Laos and Vietnam for instance). Generally speaking, the General Offi ...
s serving major party leading groups * The national-level heads of state-sponsored civic institutions Occasionally officials of vice-ministerial rank could also hold membership on the Central Committee, though only in rare and exceptional circumstances. For example,
Ma Xingrui Ma Xingrui (; born October 1959) is a Chinese politician and aerospace engineer who is the Communist Party Secretary of Xinjiang. Prior to that, he had served as the Vice Minister of Industry and Information Technology, Head of the Political an ...
, the party chief of
Shenzhen Shenzhen (; ; ; ), also historically known as Sham Chun, is a major sub-provincial city and one of the special economic zones of China. The city is located on the east bank of the Pearl River estuary on the central coast of southern province ...
(as of 2015), was a member of the 18th Central Committee. While institutional rules has, since the 1980s, played a major role in the selection of Central Committee members, it does not ''guarantee'' that holders of a specific office will gain a seat on the CC. If a CC member is transferred to a different post, they maintain their CC membership. For example, a Governor of Shandong who is transferred to a position of less significance does not lose his seat on the CC, neither will his successor gain a seat on the CC. This has created situations in which individuals who do not sit on the Central Committee assume provincial leadership positions. An individual already provisionally named to a provincial leadership post may also be rejected by the "more candidates than seats" voting method – as appeared to be the case with
Li Yuanchao Li Yuanchao (born 20 November 1950) is a retired Chinese politician. He was the Vice President of the People's Republic of China from 2013 to 2018 and the Honorary President of the Red Cross Society of China. He was a member of the Secretaria ...
(then Jiangsu party chief) in 2002, and Yang Xiong (mayor of Shanghai) in 2012.


Alternate members

In contrast to full membership, alternate membership of the Central Committee is more varied in its composition, and there are fewer institutional rules governing its membership list. Generally speaking, since the 1980s, alternate membership in the Central Committee is composed of officials of provincial-ministerial rank or sub-provincial (vice-minister) rank. They are selected based on a combination of experience and the institutions that they represent. Many are heads of provincial party departments or party chiefs of big cities. Prominent academics with no political experience and state-owned enterprise chief executives often hold alternate seats on the Central Committee. Some alternate members therefore hold no other political positions. Younger alternate members are also generally seen to be "up-and-coming" national leaders.


Election of members

Though all nominations for the Central Committee are decided beforehand, since the 13th Party Congress in 1987, in the spirit of promoting "inner-party democracy", the number of candidates up for election for both full members and alternate members have been greater than the number of available seats. Nominees for the Central Committee who receive the lowest number of votes from Party Congress delegates are thus unable to enter the Central Committee. At the 18th Party Congress, a total of 224 candidates stood for election for full membership for a total of 205 seats. A total of 190 candidates stood for election for a total of 171 alternate seats. This meant that 9.3% of full member candidates and 11.1% alternate member candidates were not elected.


Age and turnover of membership

Since the 1980s, the membership of the Central Committee has experienced rapid turnover, mostly due to the institutionalization of the system of promotions for party officials as well as an informally mandated retirement age, currently set at 65 for minister-level officials (which comprise the majority of the members of the Central Committee). The average age of members in the 18th Central Committee is 56.1 years. From the 1980s onwards, an average of 62% of the membership of the outgoing Central Committee has been replaced at each party congress. Since most members are at least 50 years old when they enter the body, the mandatory retirement age essentially serves as a 'term limit' on the entire membership of the Central Committee, whereby no member or group of members could conceivably serve longer than three terms on the Central Committee. It also makes forming enduring political factions difficult. Chinese politics analyst Cheng Li noted that this makes the body much more fluid than most national legislatures, for which term limits do not generally apply. This has prevented the emergence of a
gerontocracy A gerontocracy is a form of oligarchical rule in which an entity is ruled by leaders who are significantly older than most of the adult population. In many political structures, power within the ruling class accumulates with age, making the olde ...
as was common in the Soviet Union, Cuba, and North Korea; by the same token, officials younger than 45 have next to no chance of being elected onto the body.


Current composition


See also

*
Chinese Communist Party Provincial Standing Committee Members of the standing committees of the Chinese Communist Party provincial-level committees, commonly referred to as ''Shengwei Changwei'' (), make up the top ranks of the provincial-level organizations of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). I ...


References


External links


Official website of the International Department, Central Committee of CCP
{{Authority control Organizations established in 1927 1927 establishments in China China, Communist Party