History
The term was commonly applied to Mao Zedong, who at times ruled with practically absolute power, and Deng Xiaoping, who was the most influential person in the PRC despite not holding the hierarchically most powerful official positions. Following the death of Deng, the term has seldom been used since power is held more or less collectively by the members of the Politburo Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China with the General Secretary acting as a first among equals figure, and different factions jockeying for influence. Policy decisions are thought to be made via majority vote of Standing Committee members following internal discussions. For example, though Jiang Zemin left the Standing Committee in 2002 and resigned all his posts in 2004, members of the Shanghai clique (of which Jiang is a member) retained a majority in the Standing Committee.
Leadership transition takes several months. For instance, in the case of Hu Jintao:
- General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (November 2002)
- President of the People's Republic of China (March 2003)
- Chairman of the Central Military Commission (September 2004)
In the case of the transition to both Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao, the Chairman of the Central Military Commission was the last office handed over by the previous paramount leader, in order to secure political influence and ensure political continuity. In the case of the Hu to Xi transition, Hu resigned the Party CMC immediately leading to the belief that he will resign the State CMC in March 2013, when his term as President ends.
Read more about this topic: Paramount Leader
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“If you look at history you’ll find that no state has been so plagued by its rulers as when power has fallen into the hands of some dabbler in philosophy or literary addict.”
—Desiderius Erasmus (c. 1466–1536)
“What is most interesting and valuable in it, however, is not the materials for the history of Pontiac, or Braddock, or the Northwest, which it furnishes; not the annals of the country, but the natural facts, or perennials, which are ever without date. When out of history the truth shall be extracted, it will have shed its dates like withered leaves.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“History does nothing; it does not possess immense riches, it does not fight battles. It is men, real, living, who do all this.... It is not “history” which uses men as a means of achieving—as if it were an individual person—its own ends. History is nothing but the activity of men in pursuit of their ends.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)