Paramount leader and Related Topics

Chinese Communist Party

Founding and sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC).

Site of the first CCP Congress, in the former Shanghai French Concession

Flag of the HistoryChinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army

Mao Zedong declared the establishment of the People's Republic of China on 1 October 1949.

Chinese communists celebrate Joseph Stalin's birthday, 1949.

A temporary monument displayed in Changsha, Hunan Province, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the CCP's founding

A monument dedicated to Karl Marx (left) and Friedrich Engels (right) in Shanghai

A billboard advertising Xi Jinping Thought in Shenzhen, Guangdong

The 18th National Congress, convened in November 2012

Front cover of the Constitution of the Chinese Communist Party

Xi Jinping (second from left) with Enrique Peña Nieto (second from right), the former President of Mexico and a leading member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party

Because of these posts, the party leader is seen as the country's paramount leader.

Deng Xiaoping at age 16, studying in France (1921)

Deng Xiaoping (22 August 1904 – 19 February 1997), also known by his courtesy name Xixian (希贤), was a Chinese revolutionary leader, military commander and statesman who served as the paramount leader of the People's Republic of China (PRC) from December 1978 to 1992.

President of the People's Republic of China

Head of state of the People's Republic of China.

Li Xiannian President (18 June 1983 – 8 April 1988)

However, as a matter of convention, the presidency is held simultaneously by the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, who also serves as the chairman of the Central Military Commission, thus is often the paramount leader of China.

General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party

The general secretary of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party is the paramount leader of China.

Jiang Zemin

Chinese retired politician who served as General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party from 1989 to 2002, as Chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Chinese Communist Party from 1989 to 2004, and as President of the People's Republic of China from 1993 to 2003.

Graduation photo of Jiang, taken in 1947.

Jiang Zemin with U.S. President Bill Clinton in 1999.

Jiang Zemin with his wife and George W. Bush with his wife in Crawford, Texas, 25 October 2002.

Jiang Zemin's inscription engraved on a stone in his hometown, Yangzhou

As the involvement of the "Eight Elders" in Chinese politics steadily declined, Jiang consolidated his hold on power to become the "paramount leader" in the country during the 1990s.

Xi Jinping

Chinese politician who has been serving as General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and Chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC) since 2012, and President of the People's Republic of China (PRC) since 2013.

Xi Jinping greeting U.S. President George W. Bush in August 2008.

Xi Jinping with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on 28 September 2010.

Portrait of Xi in Beijing, September 2015

Holographic portraits of Mao Zedong and Xi Jinping in a shop in China

Xi giving a speech at the U.S. Department of State in 2012, with then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and then Vice-President Joe Biden in the background. Seated in the front row is former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.

BRICS leaders Vladimir Putin, Narendra Modi, Dilma Rousseff, Xi Jinping and Jacob Zuma at the G20 summit in Brisbane, Australia, 15 November 2014

Xi with the first lady during the Moscow Victory Day Parade on 9 May 2015

Xi with Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, 23 January 2016

U.S. President Donald Trump arrives in China, 8 November 2017

Xi in an official visit to Warsaw, where he and Poland's President Andrzej Duda signed a declaration on strategic partnership

Xi, who was on a four-day state visit to the UK, addressed both Houses of Parliament at Westminster, 21 October 2015

World leaders assemble for 'family photo' at G20 summit in Hamburg

Countries that signed cooperation documents related to the Belt and Road Initiative

According to the Qiushi, the Chinese Dream is about Chinese prosperity, collective effort, socialism, and national glory.

A billboard promoting Xi Jinping Thought in Shenzhen

The Governance of China in different languages presented at Shanghai Library

Hong Kong protesters throw eggs at Xi Jinping's portrait on National Day

Xi Jinping met with then-Taiwanese president Ma Ying-jeou in November 2015 in their capacity as the leader of mainland China and Taiwan respectively.

Xi Jinping, Peng Liyuan and U.S. President Barack Obama in the Lincoln Bedroom

Xi has been the paramount leader of China, the most prominent political leader in the People's Republic of China, since 2012.

Zhao (top left) pictured with Mao Zedong in Wuhan, January 1966

Zhao Ziyang

Chinese politician.

Zhao was hosted by US president Ronald Reagan at the White House on 10 January 1984 as part of a broader effort to improve China's relations with the West.

Zhao Ziyang's final burial site in 2019, with his son on the right.

After ousting Hua Guofeng as China's "paramount leader" in 1978, Deng Xiaoping recognized the "Sichuan Experience" as a model for Chinese economic reform.

Hu Jintao

Retired Chinese politician who served as General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 2002 to 2012, President of the People's Republic of China (PRC) from 2003 to 2013, and Chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC) from 2004 to 2012.

Hu Jintao with Leaders of the BRICS countries, from left, Singh, Medvedev, Rousseff and Zuma in April 2011

Hu with George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush in Beijing, 10 August 2008

Hu talks with U.S. President Barack Obama at the 2009 Pittsburgh G-20 Summit

Hu was the paramount leader of China from 2004 to 2012.

Cultural Revolution

Sociopolitical movement in China from 1966 until Mao Zedong's death in 1976, launched by Mao, the Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party and founder of the People's Republic of China (PRC).

People in the countryside working at night to produce steel during the Great Leap Forward

The purge of General Luo Ruiqing solidified the Army's loyalty to Mao.

Mao waved to the "revolutionary masses" on the riverside before his "swim across the Yangtze"

A struggle session of Wang Guangmei, the wife of Liu Shaoqi.

Mao Zedong and Lin Biao surrounded by rallying Red Guards in Beijing. Source: China Pictorial

Tiananmen Square on September 15, 1966, the occasion of Chairman Mao's third of eight mass rallies with Red Guards in 1966. Source: China Pictorial

The remains of Ming Dynasty Wanli Emperor at the Ming tombs. Red Guards dragged the remains of the Wanli Emperor and Empresses to the front of the tomb, where they were posthumously "denounced" and burned.

The Cemetery of Confucius was attacked by Red Guards in November 1966.

Propaganda oil painting of Mao during the Cultural Revolution (1967)

Marshal Lin Biao was constitutionally confirmed as Mao's successor in 1969.

Graffiti with Lin Biao's foreword to Mao's Little Red Book, Lin's name (lower right) was later scratched out, presumably after his death.

Jiang Qing (left), who was the wife of Mao Zedong and a member of the Gang of Four, received the Red Guards in Beijing with Premier Zhou Enlai (center) and Kang Sheng. They were all holding the Little Red Book (Quotations from Mao) in their hands.

Deng Xiaoping became the paramount leader of China in 1978. He started "Boluan Fanzheng" that brought the country back to order, and initiated China's historic Reforms and Opening up.

A struggle session of Xi Zhongxun, the father of Xi Jinping (September 1967). Xi Zhongxun was labelled as an "anti-Party element". However, since late 2012, Xi Jinping and his allies have attempted to play down the disaster of the Cultural Revolution and reversed many reforms since the Boluan Fanzheng period, sparking concerns of a new Cultural Revolution.

Quotations of Mao Zedong on a street wall of Wuxuan County, one of the centers of Guangxi massacre and cannibalism during the Cultural Revolution.

The Cultural Revolution Cemetery in Chongqing, China. At least 1,700 people were killed during the violent faction clash, with 400 to 500 of them buried in this cemetery.

The Tibetan Panchen Lama during a struggle session.

Struggle session of Sampho Tsewang Rigzin and his wife during the Cultural Revolution.

A 1968 map of Beijing showing streets and landmarks renamed during the Cultural Revolution. Andingmen Inner Street became "Great Leap Forward Road", Taijichang Street became the "Road for Eternal Revolution", Dongjiaominxiang was renamed "Anti-Imperialist Road", Beihai Park was renamed "Worker-Peasant-Soldier Park" and Jingshan Park became "Red Guard Park." Most of the Cultural Revolution-era name changes were later reversed.

Yao Tongbin, one of China's foremost missile scientists, was beaten to death by a mob in Beijing during the Cultural Revolution (1968). This caused Zhou Enlai to order special protection for key technical experts.

Remnants of a banner containing slogans from the Cultural Revolution in Anhui.

The ballet The Red Detachment of Women, one of the Model Dramas promoted during the Cultural Revolution.

Posters from the Cultural Revolution period

Buddhist statues defaced during the Cultural Revolution.

The central section of this wall shows the faint remnant marks of a propaganda slogan that was added during the Cultural Revolution, but has since been removed. The slogan read "Boundless faith that in Chairman Mao."

In December 1978, Deng Xiaoping became the new paramount leader of China, replacing Chairman Hua Guofeng, and started the "Boluan Fanzheng" program which gradually dismantled the Maoist policies associated with the Cultural Revolution, and brought the country back to order.

Hu Yaobang

High-ranking official of the People's Republic of China.

Hu Yaobang, Zhu De, and Liao Chengzhi at the National Youth Congress in 1953 (left to right)

(from left) Zhao Ziyang, Deng Xiaoping and Li Peng at Hu Yaobang's memorial service in the Great Hall of the People, on 22 April 1989

Hu Yaobang's rise to power was engineered by Deng Xiaoping, and Hu rose to the highest levels of the Party after Deng displaced Hua Guofeng as China's "paramount leader".