The chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress is the presiding officer of the

Standing Committee of the National People's Congress The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China (NPCSC) is the permanent body of the National People's Congress (NPC) of the People's Republic of China (PRC), which is the highest organ of state po ...

(NPCSC), which is the permanent body of the

National People's Congress The National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China (NPC; ), or simply the National People's Congress, is constitutionally the supreme state authority and the national legislature of the People's Republic of China. With 2,9 ...

, highest organ of state power and top legislative body in the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

(PRC). The chairman presides over the work of the NPCSC and convenes and presides over its meetings. The chairman is assisted by the vice chairpersons and

secretary-general 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 ...

of the NPCSC. A vice chairperson may be delegated to exercise some of the chairman's powers by the chairman. In the case that the chairman becomes incapacitated, NPCSC temporarily elects one of the vice chairpersons until the chairman is able to resume their work or a new chairman is elected by the NPC. The position holds reserve constitutional powers under the 1982 revision of the

Constitution of the People's Republic of China 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 fou ...

. As stipulated in Article 84 of the Constitution, should both the

president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

and

vice-president A vice president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vice president is on ...

become incapacitated, and the National People's Congress is unable to elect a timely replacement, the chairman of the NPC Standing Committee will act as president. From 1998 to 2013, the position was ranked second in China's political hierarchy since

Li Peng Li Peng (; 20 October 1928 – 22 July 2019) was a Chinese politician who served as the fourth Premier of the People's Republic of China from 1987 to 1998, and as the Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, Ch ...

was barred from seeking a third term as premier in 1998. In the political order of precedence, the chairman ranks below the

general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party The general secretary 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 lead ...

and

. The ranking of this position is not necessarily reflective of its actual power, which varies depending on the officeholder. The incumbent chairman is Li Zhanshu.

History

Initially, there were disagreements to whether name the post "chairman" ( or ) or "speaker" (). However, ultimately the word "chairman" () was adopted. From 1975 to 1983, the chairman of the Standing Committee served as

head of state A head of state (or chief of state) is the public persona who officially embodies a state Foakes, pp. 110–11 " he head of statebeing an embodiment of the State itself or representatitve of its international persona." in its unity and ...

of the People's Republic of China, as the presidency had been written out of the 1975 constitution and was also excluded from the 1978 draft. Theoretically, during 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 ...

, the NPC chairman at the time,

Wan Li Wan Li (1 December 1916 – 15 July 2015) was a Chinese Communist revolutionary and politician. During a long administrative career in the People's Republic of China, he served successively as Vice Premier, Chairman of the Standing Committee of ...

, had the power to call an emergency session of the NPC to resolve the issue constitutionally. However, Wan's freedom of movement was restricted, and ultimately rendered powerless in the situation.

List of chairmen

Multiple terms in office, consecutive or otherwise, are listed and counted in the first column counts individuals and the second column (''term number''). ; Generations of leadership: *

Timeline

ImageSize = width:800 height:auto barincrement:18 PlotArea = top:10 bottom:50 right:130 left:20 AlignBars = late DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy Period = from:01/01/1953 till:01/01/2023 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:5 start:1953 Colors = id:pres value:rgb(1,0,0) id:vac value:rgb(0,1,0) BarData = barset:PM PlotData= width:8 align:left fontsize:S shift:(5,-4) anchor:till barset:PM from: 27/09/1954 till: 18/04/1959 color:pres text:"

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 ...

" fontsize:10 from: 28/04/1959 till: 06/07/1976 color:pres text:"

Zhu De Zhu De (; ; also Chu Teh; 1 December 1886 – 6 July 1976) was a Chinese general, military strategist, politician and revolutionary in the Chinese Communist Party. Born into poverty in 1886 in Sichuan, he was adopted by a wealthy uncle at ...

" fontsize:10 from: 06/07/1976 till: 05/03/1978 color:pres text:"

Soong Ching-ling Rosamond Soong Ch'ing-ling (27 January 189329 May 1981) 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. ...

" fontsize:10 from: 05/03/1978 till: 18/06/1983 color:pres text:"

Ye Jianying Ye Jianying (; 28 April 1897 – 22 October 1986) was a Chinese Communist revolutionary leader and politician, one of the founding Ten Marshals of the People's Republic of China. He was the top military leader in the 1976 coup that overthre ...

" fontsize:10 from: 18/06/1983 till: 27/04/1988 color:pres text:"

Peng Zhen Peng Zhen (pronounced ; October 12, 1902 – April 26, 1997) was a leading member of the Chinese Communist Party. He led the party organization in Beijing following the victory of the Communists in the Chinese Civil War in 1949, but was ...

" fontsize:10 from: 27/04/1988 till: 27/03/1993 color:pres text:"

" fontsize:10 from: 27/03/1993 till: 16/03/1998 color:pres text:"

Qiao Shi Qiao Shi (24 December 1924 – 14 June 2015) was a Chinese politician and one of the top leaders of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). He was a member of the party's top decision-making body, the Politburo Standing Committee, from 1987 to 1997 ...

" fontsize:10 from: 16/03/1998 till: 15/03/2003 color:pres text:"

" fontsize:10 from: 15/03/2003 till: 14/03/2013 color:pres text:"

Wu Bangguo Wu Bangguo (born 12 July 1941) is a retired high-ranking politician in the People's Republic of China. He was the Chairman and Chinese Communist Party Committee Secretary of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress from 2003 to ...

" fontsize:10 from: 15/03/2013 till: 17/03/2018 color:pres text:"

Zhang Dejiang Zhang Dejiang (; born 4 November 1946) is a Chinese retired politician. He served as the Chairman of the Standing Committee of the 12th National People's Congress, roughly the equivalent of a speaker of parliament in other countries between ...

" fontsize:10 from: 17/03/2018 till: 12/09/2021 color:pres text:" Li Zhanshu" fontsize:10

History

List of chairmen

Timeline

References

See also