Paramount leader

The paramount leader (, literally "the highest leader of the party and the state", refers to the political leader of China in modern Chinese political science.

Until the mid-1990s, the paramount leader was able to wield power without necessarily holding any official or formally significant governmental position. The most notable example is former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, who held supreme power in the People's Republic of China roughly from 1978 to 1992 without officially holding the top political offices. The current paramount leader is Xi Jinping.

The paramount leader usually holds the following posts:


 * General Secretary of the Communist Party of China: The leader of the Party and the highest ranking position


 * Chairman of the Central Military Commission: Commander-in-chief of the People's Liberation Army


 * President of the People's Republic of China: The head of state - ceremonial figurehead since 1982. (.

History
The term was commonly applied to Mao Zedong, who at times ruled with practically absolute power, and Deng Xiaoping, who was the most influential person in the PRC despite not holding the hierarchically most powerful official positions. Following the death of Deng, the term has seldom been used since power is held more or less collectively by the members of the Politburo Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China with the General Secretary acting as a first among equals figure, and different factions jockeying for influence. Policy decisions are thought to be made via majority vote of Standing Committee members following internal discussions. For example, though Jiang Zemin left the Standing Committee in 2002 and resigned all his posts in 2004, members of the Shanghai clique (of which Jiang is a member) retained a majority in the Standing Committee.

Leadership transition takes several months. For instance, in the case of Xi Jinping:
 * General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (November 2012)
 * Chairman of the Central Military Commission (November 2012)
 * President of the People's Republic of China (March 2013)

In the case of the transition to both Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao, the Chairman of the Central Military Commission was the last office handed over by the previous paramount leader, in order to secure political influence and ensure political continuity. In the case of the Hu to Xi transition, Hu resigned the Party CMC immediately leading to the belief that he will resign the State CMC in March 2013, when his term as President ends.

List of paramount leaders
To date, "paramount leader" has been applied to six individual Chinese leaders (dates approximate):


 * Generations of leadership: