Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China
Flag of the People's Republic of China
Incumbent Wu Bangguo since March 15, 2003
Appointer	Vote within the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress
Inaugural holder	Liu Shaoqi
Formation	September 27, 1954

The Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (simplified Chinese: 全国人民代表大会常务委员会委员长; traditional Chinese: 全國人民代表大會常務委員會委員長; pinyin: Quánguó Rénmín Dàibiǎo Dàhuì Chángwù Wěiyuánhuì Wěiyuánzhǎng) is the Speaker of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (Congress) of the People's Republic of China, China's top legislative body. The current Chairman is Wu Bangguo.

The position has been ranked second in China's political hierarchy since Li Peng was barred from seeking a third term as Premier in 1998. In China's political order of precedence the NPC Chair ranks below the General Secretary and President but above the Premier. The ranking of this position is according to the qualification, however, is not necessarily reflective of its actual power, which varies depending on the officeholder.

[edit] Powers

The position holds reserve constitutional powers under the 1978 revision of the Constitution of the People's Republic of China. As stipulated in Article 84 of the Constitution, should both the President and Vice-President become incapacitated, and the National People's Congress is unable to elect a timely replacement, the Chairman of the NPC will act as President.^[1]

Theoretically, during the Tiananmen Square Protests of 1989, the NPC Chair at the time, Wan Li, had the power to call an emergency session of the NPC to resolve the issue constitutionally. However, Wan's freedom of movement was restricted, and ultimately was powerless in the situation.

[edit] Chairmen of the Standing Committee

#	Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress		Vice Charman	Took office	Left office	Term
	Romanized	Picture
01	Liu Shaoqi 刘少奇 / 劉少奇		Song Qingling Lin Boqu Li Jishen Zhang Lan Luo Ronghuan Shen Junru Guo Moruo 8. Huang Yanpei 9. Peng Zhen 10. Li Weihan 11. Chen Shutong 12. Lhamo Döndrub Dalai Lama 13. Seypidin Eziz 14. Cheng Chien	September 15, 1954	April 28, 1959	01
02	Zhu De 朱德			April 28, 1959	January 4, 1965	02
				January 4, 1965	January 17, 1975	03
				January 17, 1975	July 6, 1976	04
Acting	Song Qingling 宋庆龄 / 宋慶齡			July 6, 1976	March 5, 1978
03	Ye Jianying 叶剑英 / 葉劍英			March 5, 1978	June 18, 1983	05
04	Peng Zhen 彭真			June 18, 1983	April 13, 1988	06
05	Wan Li 万里 / 萬里			April 13, 1988	March 27, 1993	07
06	Qiao Shi 乔石			March 27, 1993	March 15, 1998	08
07	Li Peng 李鹏 / 李鵬			March 15, 1998	March 15, 2003	09
08	Wu Bangguo 吴邦国 / 吳邦國			March 15, 2003	March 15, 2008	10
				March 15, 2008	Incumbent	11

[edit] References

1. ^ Constitution of the PRC

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