Politburo Standing Committee

China's Politburo Standing Committee (PBSC), these days selected every five years by China's political elites and rubber-stamped by the Central Committee, is on paper just what its name suggests, a committee. It is in practice the body which makes all important decisions on literally everything in China.

Nothing is outside the notice of this committee of between five and nine men, and no other power or collection of powers in the country can gainsay its decisions. That is not to say that other powers are not without influence, as the normal web of guanxi (connections) so prevalent elsewhere in China works here too, most notably the behind the scenes power weilded by the so-called "Party Elders". As can be seen from the list below, the idea of turning the PBSC over every five years is post 1969.

I will leave to other nodes (like Chinese government: theory and practice) a full description of China's complex political system, the focus here is the actual makeup of past PBSCs, as well as the current one. As long as China maintains its current form of government, this list will obviously never be complete. This is a big list, and I have tried to be accurate. If I've missed a trick, however, and you have better data, especially on the internal ranking of earlier PBSCs please /msg me.

This orderly list hides the dramatic changes all of the handovers except the last one have heralded.

Mao and friends built China and then had a pretty decent try at destroying it again through the Cultural Revolution.
Deng took China to the global marketplace but silenced any parallel political freedom with the events of 1989.
Jiang and pals have presided over "strong China" - a growing global power and leading strategic power in Asia.
Hu is seen as the "new generation". Only time will tell in what direction he and the 16th PBSC will take China. For the time being it is more of the same, although most observers inside and outside China feel this cannot last.

Although there are five leaders identified in the list below, Li Peng is generally recognized to have been so weak that most commentators dismiss him entirely, talking about the "four generations". Each of these handovers needs a node of its own, as do most of the leaders. /msg me if you add a handover or other China government node and I will reference it here.

16th PBSC (2002 - 2007)

Hu Jintao (also General Secretary, CCP; President, People's Republic of China; Chairman, Central Military Commission {confirmed in 2003})
Li Ruihuan (also Chairman, Standing Committee of the National People's Congress)
Wen Jibao (also Premier of the State Council)
Wu Bangguo (also Chairman, Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference)
Luo Gan (also Secretary, Central Disciplinary Inspection Commission)
Zeng Qinghong (also Secretary, CCP Secretariat)
Li Changchun (also Executive Deputy Premier {confirmed March 2003})

15th PBSC (1997 - 2002)

Jiang Zemin (also General Secretary, Chinese Communist Party; President, People's Republic of China; Chairman, Central Military Commission)
Li Peng (also Chairman, Standing Committee of the National People's Congress)
Zhu Rongji (also Premier of the State Council)
Li Ruihuan (also Chairman, Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference)
Hu Jintao (also Vice President, People's Republic of China; Vice Chairman, Central Military Commission)
Wei Jianxing (also Secretary, Central Disciplinary Inspection Commission)
Li Lanqing (also Executive Vice Premier)

14th PBSC (1992 - 1997)

13th PBSC (1987 - 1992)

12th PBSC (1982 - 1987)

11th PBSC (1977 - 1982)

10th PBSC (1973 - 1977)

9th PBSC (1969 - 1973)

8th PBSC (1956 - 1969)

1st to 7th "Defacto" PBSC (pre 1956) Often known as the "Big Five".

Chinese government: theory and practice	Hu Jintao	Smoking in China	Zhu De
Zhou Enlai	Deng Xiaoping	Chinese Communist party	Mao Zedong
Kremlin	Tiananmen Square	17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China	Cultural Revolution
guanxi	Lin Biao	Jiang Zemin	Liu Shaoqi
China