General Secretary of the CPC

General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China 中国共产党中央委员会总书记
Emblem of the Communist Party of China
Incumbent Xi Jinping since 15 November 2012
Style	Comrade (同志) (Formal) His Excellency (閣下) (In international correspondence)
Type	Party leader
Status	1st in China
Member of	Central Committee Politburo Standing Committee Central Military Commission National Security Commission Secretariat
Reports to	the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China
Residence	Zhongnanhai
Seat	Beijing
Appointer	the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China
Term length	Five Years (no restriction on re-election)
Constituting instrument	Constitution of the Communist Party of China
Precursor	Chairman of the Communist Party of China
Inaugural holder	Chen Duxiu (1925) Hu Yaobang (1982)
Formation	1925 – 1943 September 1982
Unofficial names	Paramount leader
Website	Top Leadership

The General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, officially General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, is head of the Communist Party of China and the highest-ranking official within China, a standing member of the Politburo and head of the Secretariat. The officeholder is usually considered the paramount leader of China.

According to the Constitution, the General Secretary serves as an ex officio member of the Politburo Standing Committee, China's de facto top decision-making body. Since the early 1990s, the holder of the post has been, except for transitional periods, the Chairman of the Central Military Commission, making the holder the Supreme Military Command of the People's Liberation Army.

The current General Secretary is Xi Jinping, who took office on 15 November 2012.

Since the abolition of the post of Chairman of the Communist Party of China in 12th Central Committee in 1982, the General Secretary is the highest-ranking official of the party and heads the Central Secretariat, Political bureau and its Standing Committee.