Politburo of the Communist Party of China

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

People's Republic of China
This article is part of the series: Politics and government of the People's Republic of China

Constitution
President: Hu Jintao National People's Congress Standing Committee
Premier: Wen Jiabao State Council People's Liberation Army Central Military Commission
Law of the PRC Supreme People's Court Supreme People's Procuratorate
Political Parties CPPCC Communist Party of China Constitution General Secretary National Congress Central Committee Secretariat Politburo Standing Committee
Elections Political divisions Foreign relations Foreign aid
See also Politics of Hong Kong Politics of Macau
Other countries • Politics Portal view • talk • edit

The Politburo of the Communist Party of China (Chinese: 中国共产党中央政治局 pinyin: Zhōngguó Gòngchǎndǎng Zhōngyāng Zhèngzhìjú) (also "Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee") is a group of 19 to 25 people who oversee the Communist Party of China. Unlike politburos (political bureaus) of other Communist parties, power within the politburo is centralized in the Politburo Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China. The Politburo is nominally appointed by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China but the practice since the 1980s has been that the Politburo is self-perpetuating.

The power of the Politburo resides largely in the fact that its members generally simultaneously hold positions within the People's Republic of China state positions and with the control over personnel appointments that the Politburo and Secretariat have. How the Politburo works internally is murky, but it appears that the full Politburo meets once a month and the standing committee meets weekly. This is believed to be much more infrequent than the former Politburo of the CPSU had been. The agenda for the meetings appears to be controlled by the General Secretary and decisions are made by consensus rather than by majority vote.

The Politburo was eclipsed by the Secretariat of the Communist Party of China in the early 1980s under Hu Yaobang, but was re-emerged as a dominant force after Hu's ousting in 1987.