Orders of precedence in the People's Republic of China

Applications of protocol

The Order of Precedence has gradually become normalized as the institutions of the Communist Party and the People's Republic became more established and stable. Internal publications and official media adhere to strict ranking protocol when reporting news items or public announcements that involve multiple leaders. Similarly, the order is strictly adhered to when seating leaders at official meetings and functions.

Often, state media news programs, such as Xinwen Lianbo, overlook the actual importance of the story attached to each leader. Rather the news order is determined by political ranking alone. For instance, if a higher-ranked leader is chairing a routine meeting, while a lower-ranked leader is visiting an earthquake disaster zone, the routine meeting will take precedence over the disaster in the order that they are reported.

Protocol ordering of leaders is perhaps most visible at large gatherings of party and state leaders, such as Party Congresses, National People's Congresses, the funeral or memorial service of former leaders, or major anniversary celebrations.

The current order of precedence applies to party, state, and military leaders. It generally follows an order set out by the institutions to which these leaders belong; further ranking of individual leaders are applied within each of the institutions. Where an individual belongs to numerous party and state institutions, they are usually only mentioned on first instance for their highest-ranking post.

Order of institutions

The organs of the party, state, and military, have a generally applied rank order, as follows:

1. Central Committee of the Communist Party of China
   1. Central Politburo
   2. Central Secretariat
2. Central Government of the People's Republic of China (excluding the military and judicial organs)
   1. Standing Committee of the National People's Congress
   2. Presidency
   3. State Council
3. The National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC)
4. Central Military Commission (CMC)
   1. CMC of the Communist Party of China
   2. CMC of the People's Republic of China
5. Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China
6. Highest judicial organs
   1. Supreme People's Court
   2. Supreme People's Procuratorate

Order of leaders

1. Current members of the CPC Central Politburo Standing Committee, normally including:
   1. General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee
   2. President of the People's Republic of China
   3. Premier of the State Council
   4. Chairperson of the NPC Standing Committee
   5. Chairperson of the CPPCC National Committee
   6. Chairman of the Central Military Commission
   7. Other members of the Politburo Standing Committee, normally including:
   8. First-ranked Secretary of the CPC Central Secretariat
   9. Secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection
   10. First-ranked (Senior) Vice Premier of the State Council
2. Other current members of the Politburo, normally including:
3. Vice President
4. Vice Premiers of the State Council
5. Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission
6. Former members of the Central Politburo Standing Committee
7. Current Members of the CPC Central Secretariat
8. Vice Chairpersons of the National People's Congress Standing Committee
9. State Councilors
10. President of the Supreme People's Court
11. Procurators-General of the Supreme People's Procuratorate
12. Vice Chairpersons of the CPPCC National Committee, at the bottom of the list of the current national-level "Leaders of the Party and the State" (党和国家领导人)
13. Retired "Leaders of the Party and the State" expect former members of the Politburo Standing Committee, ranked by the highest office they held, repeating the same order above.
14. Central Military Commission members except chairpersons and vice-chairpersons are not considered national-level "Leaders of the Party and State" but merely leaders of the People's Liberation Army, and generally listed separately by protocol.
    1. Current CMC members (except chairpersons and vice-chairpersons)
    2. Former CMC members (except chairpersons and vice-chairpersons)
15. Provincial-ministerial level officials

NB:

Politburo Standing Committee

The Politburo Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China, colloquially called the Zhengzhiju Changweihui in Chinese, is the apex of political power in China. Its members (Zhengzhiju Changwei) are strictly ranked. The rankings are determined by perceived political power, personal prestige, or by the ordering of the offices they hold.

The General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (before 1982, the Chairman of the Communist Party of China) is always ranked first, despite the fact that some General Secretaries were not the pre-eminent political leaders. For example, General Secretaries Hu Yaobang and Zhao Ziyang (both ranked first) were, in practice, subordinate to "paramount leader" Deng Xiaoping, who was ranked behind them in protocol. Between 1997 and 2012, the Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), the head of the national legislature, was always ranked second. During the same period, the Premier of the People's Republic of China, as head of government, was ranked third. The Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) is ranked fourth. However, in 2013, this ordering changed. The Premier, Li Keqiang, was ranked 2nd, immediately after the General Secretary, and in front of the NPC Chairman Zhang Dejiang.

The President is a largely ceremonial post. Since 1993, the offices of President and the General Secretary have been held by the same person, thus the President has since then been ranked first. Prior to 1993, the President and the General Secretary were not the same people. At the time, President Yang Shangkun, who was not a Standing Committee member, was ranked behind the members of the Standing Committee, but President Li Xiannian, being a member of the Standing Committee, was ranked fifth, behind the General Secretary of the Communist Party, Premier of the State Council, CMC Chairman and Vice-chairman.

The current ranking of the Politburo Standing Committee is as follows:

Other members of the CPC Politburo

For its early history, the Politburo was theoretically a "leadership collective", with equal status accorded to each of its members. In practice, the Politburo Standing Committee members have elevated status within the body and are considered its most important and powerful members. When a new Politburo member list is first announced, or when the Politburo membership is being reported independently of other bodies, it is ordered by "the number of strokes in the surname character", a traditional method of 'alphabetization' of Chinese names; in these cases, all Politburo members, including PSC members, are named in this sequence. Unlike the PSC, Politburo members are not ranked based on presumed level of power. When it comes to seating protocol and official announcements about the Politburo in conjunction with other party and state bodies, the Politburo Standing Committee members are announced first, before the rest of the Politburo members.

The members of the Politburo Standing Committee are also Politburo members; since they are already named above, they are omitted from this list

Living former members of the Politburo Standing Committee

Immediately following the 16th Party Congress, Jiang Zemin was ranked 2nd overall on the leadership protocol hierarchy, immediately after Hu Jintao. At the conclusion of the 18th Party Congress, when Hu Jintao retired as General Secretary, Jiang was ranked 2nd overall, after Xi Jinping, and Hu Jintao was ranked 3rd, after Jiang. Since 2013, judging mostly based on the official obituary notices of various deceased party officials, Jiang and Hu seemed to have progressively moved "lower" on the protocol strata, first below all current members of the Politburo Standing Committee, and as of 2014, behind all members of the Politburo. At the National Day banquet held on September 30, 2014, both Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao were seated next to Xi Jinping, which seemed to have implied that they took precedence over the other members of the Politburo Standing Committee; however, sequence by which the names were displayed in official news bulletins continued to place the entire Politburo before Jiang, Hu, and other retired leaders. Similarly, at the 2015 China Victory Day Parade, Jiang and Hu sat next to the podium atop Tiananmen Gate, visually giving them precedence over the other members of the Politburo Standing Committee, but in the official report of the day's events on Xinwen Lianbo, the names of Jiang and Hu were announced after all the members of the Politburo.

It should be noted that former Politburo Standing Committee members who were not "in good standing" in official party evaluations are typically not included in this list. This meant that Zhao Ziyang and Hua Guofeng were typically omitted from this list when they were alive. Zhou Yongkang, who was convicted on corruption charges in 2015, was also removed from this list.

Ranking based on official order of news announcements for the 2015 China Victory Day Parade September 3, 2015

Members of the Secretariat of the Communist Party of China

Vice-Chairpersons of the National People's Congress Standing Committee

State Councilors and Judiciary Chiefs

Vice-chairpersons of the CPPCC National Committee

In the following order:

Members of the Central Military Commission

Rankings below the National Leadership

Within the People's Republic of China, there is a statutory "National Civil Service Rankings System" to determine ranking of officials below the minister-level, stretching from the very important positions (Provincial Party Secretaries, for instance) to the lowest positions (for example, someone who is responsible for a township office). Their relative ranking determines their annual salary, living stipends, entitlement to official residences and vehicles, pensions, benefits, and so forth. Provincial leaders do not enjoy an elevated protocol rank in their own province of jurisdiction. Rather they must still be placed behind all national leaders listed above.

For the purposes of protocol rankings, the heads of national ministries technically hold the same rank as provincial governors. Therefore, they do not qualify as "national leaders". Departmental heads of the Communist Party of China, and ministers of the State Council are both called bùzhǎng (部长; literally "Head of Department"). However, many Communist Party Department heads, such as heads of the Organization and Propaganda departments, almost always hold seats on the Politburo, and thus are ranked as "national leaders". Ministers of central government departments rarely hold Politburo seats. When all else is equal, the party department heads rank above state department heads; for example, the head of the Communist Party's International Liaison Department will always rank ahead of the Minister of Foreign Affairs if they appear in the same function. In a similar vein, the provincial Party Secretary will always rank above the provincial Governor.

The hierarchy of party vs. state positions is strictly adhered to for official protocol, demonstrating the 'vanguard' status of the Communist Party in Chinese politics. Generally, party positions are treated with more prestige than state positions of an equal level, but technically the official civil service privileges are the same for party and state officials of the same administrative level.

Local Party Committee rankings

A Party Committee is the de facto highest ruling council of any given jurisdiction in the PRC, except for the Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macau.

In provincial, municipal, and other local-level protocol rankings, the four main institutions generally follow the ranking of:

Provincial party standing committees are powerful bodies whose membership is vetted directly by the Organization Department of the Communist Party of China based on the nomenklatura system. The members of these bodies are generally ranked by date of accession to sub-provincial rank, although in practice there appears to be some variation to this rule.