Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress

History

During the drafting of the PRC constitution, there were debates on which title to use for the head of the NPC Standing Committee. On 23 March 1954, at the first meeting of the Constitution Drafting Committee, the Central Committee of the CCP put forward a draft that used the title "speaker" (). During the draft discussion, there were various discussions on whether to use "speaker" or "chairman" () for the title of the post. Those who used the "chairman" title argued that it would be unpopular as Chiang Kai-shek also used that title, while those supporting it saw no issue. There were also ones proposing the use of "chairman" (), similar to the chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, but others argued against this by saying the title was the same as the chairman of the People's Republic of China, meaning that the masses could easily confuse them.

During the discussion Tian Jiaying, the deputy secretary-general of the Constitution Drafting Committee, said that the NPC is an organ of power rather than just a deliberative organ, and that the "speaker" title is not commensurate with its nature. Eventually, the word "chairman" () was adopted. The office came into existence with the adoption of the 1954 Constitution, with Liu Shaoqi becoming its first holder. From 1975 to 1983, the chairman of the Standing Committee served as state representative of the People's Republic of China, as the presidency had been written out of the 1975 Constitution and was also excluded from the 1978 draft; the presidency was restored in 1982. Theoretically, during the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, the officeholder at the time, Wan Li, had the power to call an emergency session of the NPC to resolve the issue constitutionally. However, Wan's freedom of movement was restricted, and he was ultimately rendered powerless in the situation.

Between 1993 and 1998, the office was held by Qiao Shi, who was the third-ranking member of the Politburo Standing Committee. Qiao tried to get rid off the NPC's "rubber stamp" reputation and turn it into an institution with real power in establishing the rule of law. On 16 March 1998, Li Peng was elected the chairman of the NPCSC, replacing Qiao Shi. However, he was elected with less than 90% of the vote, with around three hundred delegates not backing him, despite the fact that he was the only candidate. Under Li, the NPCSC chair was the second-ranking member of the Politburo Standing Committee just after the CCP General Secretary, which continued under Wu Bangguo, who held the office from 2003 to 2013. In 2013, the political importance of the office decreased when Zhang Dejiang became the officeholder; Zhang was the third-ranking member behind the CCP General Secretary and the Premier.

List of chairpersons

Multiple terms in office, consecutive or otherwise, are listed in the Term column.

; Generations of leadership:

Timeline

ImageSize = width:800 height:auto barincrement:18 PlotArea = top:10 bottom:50 right:130 left:20 AlignBars = late

DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy Period = from:01/01/1954 till:01/01/2027 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:5 start:1954

Define $now =

Colors = id:pres value:rgb(1,0,0) id:vac value:rgb(0,1,0)

BarData = barset:PM

PlotData = width:8 align:left fontsize:S shift:(5,-4) anchor:till barset:PM

from: 27/09/1954 till: 18/04/1959 color:pres text:"Liu Shaoqi" fontsize:10 from: 28/04/1959 till: 06/07/1976 color:pres text:"Zhu De" fontsize:10 from: 06/07/1976 till: 05/03/1978 color:vac text:"vacant" fontsize:10 from: 05/03/1978 till: 18/06/1983 color:pres text:"Ye Jianying" fontsize:10 from: 18/06/1983 till: 27/04/1988 color:pres text:"Peng Zhen" fontsize:10 from: 27/04/1988 till: 27/03/1993 color:pres text:"Wan Li" fontsize:10 from: 27/03/1993 till: 16/03/1998 color:pres text:"Qiao Shi" fontsize:10 from: 16/03/1998 till: 15/03/2003 color:pres text:"Li Peng" fontsize:10 from: 15/03/2003 till: 14/03/2013 color:pres text:"Wu Bangguo" fontsize:10 from: 15/03/2013 till: 17/03/2018 color:pres text:"Zhang Dejiang" fontsize:10 from: 17/03/2018 till: 10/03/2023 color:pres text:"Li Zhanshu" fontsize:10 from: 10/03/2023 till: $now color:pres text:"Zhao Leji" fontsize:10

Notes

References

References

1. Luo, Wangshu. (2015-01-20). "Public Employees Get Salary Increase". [[China Daily]].
2. Liao, Zewei. (2023-03-04). "NPC 2023: How China Selects Its State Leaders for the Next Five Years".
3. (4 May 2023). "FAQs: National People's Congress and Its Standing Committee".
4. "Constitution of the People's Republic of China".
5. 徐高峰，中国共产党在人大设立党组的前前后后，红广角2014(9):38-41
6. (4 March 2017). "全国人大为何设"委员长"而不是"议长"". [[The Paper (newspaper).
7. Gan. (14 June 2015). "Former China Communist Party senior official Qiao Shi dies at 91". [[South China Morning Post]].
8. (16 March 1998). "China's parliament embarrasses Li Peng". [[BBC News]].
9. Hu, Taige. (18 November 2024). "October 2024: Highlights of Wu Bangguo's Tenure as China's Chief Lawmaker".
10. Chan, Minnie. (15 March 2013). "Zhang Dejiang, an ally of ex-leader Jiang Zemin, becomes NPC chairman". [[South China Morning Post]].