The President of the People's Republic of China is the Head of State, as well as the supreme representative of China both internally and externally. The State presidency is an independent State apparatus and a component part of China's State organization. China's system of the head of state is a system of collective leadership. The president is subordinate to the NPC and directly receives instructions from the supreme organ of State power.

To date, six men have held the office of the president of the People's Republic of China: Mao Zedong, Liu Shaoqi, Li Xiannian, Yang Shangkun, Jiang Zemin, and the current president, Hu Jintao.

Status of the President

The president exercises the power of the head of the state, according to decisions of the National People's Congress and its Standing Committee. In foreign affairs, the president represents the People's Republic of China and enjoys the highest right of representation of the state. In terms of procedural, ceremonial and symbolic significance, the presidency is the highest position of the state. In essence, however, the presidency does not decide any state affairs but acts according to decisions of the NPC and its Standing Committee. Functions of the President According to the Constitute, the president of the People's Republic of China exercises both domestic functions and powers and those in foreign affairs. Domestic functions and powers: Promulgating laws, appointing and removing the premier, vice premiers, state councilors, ministers of ministries and state commissions, auditor-general, and secretary-general, conferring state medals and honorary titles, issuing order of special amnesty, proclaiming martial law and a state of war as well as issuing order of mobilization, according to decisions of the NPC and its Standing Committee. Functions and powers in foreign affairs: Receiving foreign diplomatic representatives on behalf of the People's Republic of China, appointing or recalling China's plenipotentiary representatives abroad, and ratifying or abrogating treaties and important agreements concluded with foreign countries in pursuance of the decisions of the Standing Committee of the NPC. The Constitution adopted in 1982 also stipulates that the vice president assists the president in his work and may exercise certain functions and powers entrusted by the president. In general, the functions and powers of the president can be summarized as in the following: 1. The power of promulgating laws. Laws adopted by NPC or its Standing Committee shall go into effect only after being promulgated by the president, which is the last act in the legislative processes in the People's Republic of China. 2. The power of issuing orders. The appointment and removal of the premier of the State Council, the issue of the order of special amnesty, the proclamation of martial law, a state of war and general mobilization can only be made or announced by the president. Since 1959, the president has issued the order of special amnesty on six occasions. 3. The power of making appointment or removals, i.e., the power to appoint or remove officials constituting the State Council. 4. The power of conferring titles, i.e., the power to confer state honors.     The Election of the President Both the president and vice president are elected by the NPC. According to the Constitution, candidates for the president and vice president must meet two conditions. One is the political condition. The candidates must be citizens of the People's Republic of China who have the right to vote and to stand for election. The other is the condition on age. Candidates must have reached the age of 45. In revising this condition first laid out in the Constitution of 1954, the 1982 Constitution raised the age from 35 to 45, based on the consideration that the president whose job is of great importance to the country must be politically mature, have rich work experience, and enjoy high reputation. These requirements are hard to meet unless the candidate has reached a certain age. Candidates for the president and vice president are proposed by the NPC presidium for deliberation by all the deputies. Then the presidium officially decides on the candidates, one for the presidency and one for the vice presidency, for election through voting by the NPC. As the political democratization process continues, the single-candidate practice will gradually be replaced by multi-candidate election. The 1982 Constitution also stipulates that the power of dismissal of the president and vice president rests with the NPC. In other words, no organizations, political parties, social organizations or individuals have the power to remove the president or the vice president except the National People's Congress.