Chairman of the Central Military Commission (China)

The Chairman of the Central Military Commission is the head of the Central Military Commission (CMC) and the commander-in-chief of the People's Liberation Army (PLA), the People's Armed Police (PAP) and the Militia. The officeholder is additionally vested with command authority over the nuclear arsenal of the People's Republic of China.

There are technically two offices with the same name, including the chairman of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Central Military Commission and chairman of the People's Republic of China (PRC) Central Military Commission. However, under the arrangement of "one institution with two names", they function as one office. The officeholder is usually the CCP general secretary; this grants significant political power as the only member of the Politburo Standing Committee with direct responsibilities for the armed forces. The chairman assumes overall responsibility over the work of the CMC. Per the chairman responsibility system, all significant issues in national defense are planned and decided by the CMC chairman, who holds the final deciding vote on major military decisions and oversees the CMC's and the military's leadership and operations. Other members of the CMC are the Chairman's top aides to assist his final say over key CMC matters. The chairman is the decision-maker regarding the decisions to enter war, formulates China's national defense strategy, orders troop deployments, and decides on research and development and the induction of strategic weapons. The chairman also has the exclusive right to appoint of CMC members and commanders up to the level of a headquarters department, military region, and service command. According to CMC work rules, other members of the Commission are required to maintain absolute political loyalty to the chairman and implement all directives issued, as well as seek approval for travel, leave and public appearances and provide regular reports of their activities. The office confers military ranks, though regulations stipulate that no military rank shall be conferred on the chairman themselves.

According to the state constitution, the state CMC chairman is responsible to the National People's Congress (NPC) and its Standing Committee. The state CMC chairman is officially nominated by the Presidium of the NPC during a session and approved by the delegations of the NPC, and its term of office is the same as the NPC. The Party CMC chairman is officially elected by the CCP's Central Committee. The current chairman is Xi Jinping, who took office as the Chairman of the CCP Central Military Commission on 15 November 2012, and as the Chairman of the PRC Central Military Commission on 14 March 2013.