Premier of the People's Republic of China

Since the 1980s, there has been a division of responsibilities between the premier and the CCP general secretary wherein the premier is responsible for the economy and the technical details of implementing government policy while the general secretary gathers the political support necessary for government policy.[2] However, this has been overturned under the leadership of CCP general secretary Xi Jinping, who has centralized power around himself, and taken responsibility over areas that were traditionally the domain of the premier, including the economy.[2]

The premier was historically chosen within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) through deliberations by incumbent CCP Politburo members and retired CCP Politburo members as part of the process of determining membership in the incoming new CCP Politburo Standing Committee. Under this informal process, the eventual future premier is initially chosen as a vice premier before assuming the position of premier during a subsequent round of leadership transitions.[3] This changed under Xi, with his ally and current premier Li Qiang never having served as vice premier.[4]

Officially, the premier is approved by the National People's Congress upon the nomination of the president.[5] In practice, the premier is chosen within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership, including the Politburo Standing Committee.[3][4] The premier has been supported by four vice premiers since Deng Xiaoping's reform in 1983.[6] The first-ranked vice premier acts in the premier's capacity in their absence. Both the premier and the vice premiers are selected once every five years and are limited to two terms.[5] The premier has always been a member of the Politburo Standing Committee of the Chinese Communist Party.

The premier is the highest administrative position in the Government of China. The premier heads the State Council[7] and is responsible for organizing and administering the Chinese civil bureaucracy. For example, the premier is tasked with planning and implementing national economic, social development and the state budget.[5] This includes overseeing the various ministries, departments, commissions and statutory agencies[4] and announcing their candidacies to the National People's Congress for vice-premiers, state councillors and ministerial offices. The premier's role and responsibilities are codified into the constitution unlike a prime minister's from the Westminster system as by convention or traditions.[5]

The premier does not have command authority over the armed forces, but is generally the head of the National Defense Mobilization Commission which is a department of the armed forces.[8]

• List of leaders of the People's Republic of China
• List of premiers of China
• List of Chinese leaders

• Official website
• Corpus of Political Speeches Free access to the Prime Minister’s work report and political speeches from other regions, developed by the Hong Kong Baptist University Library.