Paramount leader

Paramount leader (Chinese: 最高领导人; pinyin: Zuìgāo Lǐngdǎorén) is an informal term for the most important political figure of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The paramount leader typically controls the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the People's Liberation Army (PLA), often holding the titles of CCP General Secretary and Chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC). The state representative (president) or head of government (premier) are not necessarily paramount leader; under China's party-state system, CCP roles are politically more important than state titles. The current paramount leader is Xi Jinping, who is considered to have taken on the role in November 2012 since assuming the position of CCP general secretary, rather than in March 2013 when he succeeded Hu Jintao as president. The paramount leader is not a formal position nor an office unto itself. The term gained prominence during the era of Deng Xiaoping (1978–1989), when he was de facto able to wield political power without holding any official or formally significant party or government positions at any given time (state representative, head of government or leader of the CCP), but the Chairman of the CCP Central Military Commission (1981–1989). As the leader of the world's largest economy by GDP purchasing power parity (PPP), the second-largest economy by nominal GDP, and a potential superpower, the paramount leader is considered to be one of the world's most powerful political figures. There has been significant overlap between paramount leader status and leadership core status, with a majority but not all of paramount leaders being also leadership cores, though they are separate concepts. The term has been used less frequently to describe Deng's successors, Jiang Zemin, Hu Jintao and Xi Jinping, who have all formally held the offices of General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (party leader), President of China (state...