20th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party

The 20th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (20th CC), officially the Central Committee of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, comprises 205 members and 171 alternates. It was elected at the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)'s 20th National Congress on 22 October 2022, and its term lasts until the election of the 21st Central Committee at the 21st National Congress, which is planned for 2027. The Central Committee is the party's highest decision-making body in a given period, is not a permanent body, and convenes for an unspecified number of times.

In between sessions of the 20th CC, its powers and responsibilities are delegated to the Politburo, the Politburo Standing Committee and the Central Military Commission (CMC). At its 1st Plenary Session on 22 October, the CC elected the Politburo, Politburo Standing Committee and the CMC. It also endorsed the Politburo Standing Committee's nominees for members of the Secretariat, approved of the composition 20th Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) and its Standing Committee and approved the elections of the CCDI secretary and CCDI deputy secretaries.

The Central Committee is not a permanent institution. It convenes plenary sessions between party congresses. When the CC is not in session, decision-making powers are delegated to the internal bodies of the CC itself; that is, the Politburo, the Politburo Standing Committee and the Secretariat. None of these organizations are permanent bodies either; typically, they convene several times a month.

An analysis by the South China Morning Post found the members of the Politburo Standing Committee collectively had direct links through either career or education, with 226 out of 376 members and alternate member of the Central Committee, up from 131 in the 19th Central Committee. Of the PSC members, Xi Jinping had the most connections with links to 49 members, or around 22 percent of the Politburo Standing Committee links in total, although this was down from the previous Central Committee, where Xi had links with 42 links, which equaled to 32 percent of the PSC total. PSC members Li Qiang, Cai Qi and Li Xi each had wide networks with 39, 42 and 46 connections respectively. Vice Premier and PSC member Ding Xuexiang had connections to 15 officials, while Zhao Leji and Wang Huning, who were members of the previous Politburo Standing Committee, respectively increased their links from 12 to 21 and seven to 15. The Post commented this meant Xi would be "relying more on his deputies to build rapport with those in power at the lower level".

According to The Economist, the 20th Central Committee contains a historically low number of princelings, with 10 of them as members, compared to 41 during the 18th Central Committee. The number further declined to 9 with the expelling of Li Shangfu from the Central Committee in 2023. The number of princelings in the PSC has similarly declined; four out of seven members of the 18th Politburo Standing Committee were princelings, compared to only one, Xi Jinping, in the 20th Politburo Standing Committee. The number of princelings in the leadership further declined with the investigation on Zhang Youxia in 2026, leaving Xi as the only princeling in the Politburo.

• Presidium of the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party