Paramount Leader
| Paramount leader | |||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 最高领导人 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional Chinese | 最高領導人 | ||||||
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| Transcriptions | |
|---|---|
| Standard Mandarin | |
| Hanyu Pinyin | Zuìgāo lǐngdǎorén |
In modern Chinese politics, the paramount leader (Chinese: 最高领导人, Chinese: 最高領導人, Zuìgāo lǐngdǎo rén) of the Communist Party of China and the State is an informal term that refers to the most prominent political leader in the People's Republic of China.
It is considered one of the world's most powerful and influential political figures, leading an emerging superpower with the world's largest and rapidly growing military force, People's Liberation Army.
The "paramount leader" is not a formal position nor an office unto itself. The term gained prominence during the era of Deng Xiaoping (1978–1989), who was able to wield power without necessarily holding any official or formally significant party or government positions at any given time (head of state, head of government or General Secretary). There has been significant overlap between "paramount leader" status and "leadership core" status, though they are separate concepts.
The term has been used less frequently to describe Deng's successors, who have all formally held both the offices of General Secretary of the Communist Party of China and President of the People's Republic of China, and are therefore usually referred to as "President" in the international scene, the title used by most other republican heads of state, even though the party position of General Secretary is the primary position and generally regarded by scholars as the post whose holder can be considered "paramount leader", and the President is a largely ceremonial office according to the Constitution. Hence Xi Jinping is considered to have become "paramount leader" in November 2012 upon his becoming General Secretary, rather than in March 2013 when he succeeded Hu Jintao as President.
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