Central Politburo of the Communist Party of China

Central Politburo of the Communist Party of China 中国共产党中央政治局
Leadership
Status	Executive CPC body between the Standing Committee and Central Committee, Communist Party of China
Leader of the Party	Xi Jinping, General Secretary
1st-ranked member	Xi Jinping
Elected by	the Central Committee
Responsible to	the Central Committee
Seats	25

The Central Politburo of the Communist Party of China formally Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, formerly known as Central Bureau (中央局) before 1927, is a group of 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. The Politburo is nominally elected by the Central Committee.

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. In addition, some Politburo members hold powerful regional positions. How the Politburo works internally is unclear, 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 Soviet Politburo had met. 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 Central Committee in the early 1980s under Hu Yaobang, but has re-emerged as a dominant force after Hu's ousting in 1987.

The 18th Politburo was elected at the 1st Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee on November 15, 2012, consisting of 25 members.