President of the People's Republic of China

The president of the People's Republic of China, commonly called the president of China, is the head of state and the second-highest political office of the People's Republic of China. The presidency is a ceremonial office and not the role with the most power in China's political system. However, the post has been held by the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and chairman of the Central Military Commission since 1993, who is China's de facto leader. The presidency is officially regarded as an institution of the state rather than an administrative post. Under the constitution, the president serves at the pleasure of the National People's Congress (NPC), the legislature, and is not legally vested to take executive action on his own prerogative. The office was first established in the Constitution in 1954, with the official English-language translation of "state chairman." It was successively held by Mao Zedong and Liu Shaoqi. Liu fell into political disgrace during the Cultural Revolution, after which the presidency became vacant. The post of chairman was abolished under the Constitution of 1975, then reinstated in the Constitution of 1982, but with reduced powers. Since 1982, the title's official English-language translation "president", although the Chinese title remains unchanged. Since China is a single-party communist state, the president is generally considered to hold the second-highest position in the political system, formally after the leader of the Chinese Communist Party. However since 1993, apart from brief periods of transition, the paramount leader simultaneously serves as the state president, Communist Party leader (as CCP general secretary), and the commander-in-chief of the military (as the chairman of the Central Military Commission). This individual then carries out different duties under separate titles. For example, the leader meets foreign dignitaries and receives ambassadors in his capacity as president, issues military directives as chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), and upholds party rule as the general secretary of the CCP. During the Mao era, there were no term limits for the presidency. Between 1982 and 2018, the constitution stipulated that the president could not serve more than two consecutive terms. In 2018, term limits were abolished, without changing its powers. The current president is Xi Jinping, who took office in March 2013, replacing Hu Jintao. He was re-elected in March 2018. The next election is scheduled for March 2023. From Wikipedia