Vice Premier of China
senior official position in the government of China
The vice premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China is the deputy leader within the State Council that assist the premier of the State Council in their duties.
In terms of administrative hierarchy, the vice premier holds a position superior to that of ministers, commission directors, and the Secretary-General of the State Council, while remaining subordinate to the Premier and holding a rank equivalent to that of state councillors. Generally, the title is held by multiple individuals at any given time, with each vice premier holding a broad portfolio of responsibilities. The first-ranking vice premier takes over duties of the premier at the time of the latter's incapacity. The incumbent vice premiers, in order of rank, are Ding Xuexiang, He Lifeng, Zhang Guoqing and Liu Guozhong.
The highest-ranked office holder is informally called the Senior Vice Premier or First Vice Premier (Chinese: 第一副总理) or Executive Vice Premier (Chinese: 常务副总理), a most prominent case being Deng Xiaoping in the mid-to-late 1970s. In irregular instances, the position of a senior vice premier has been named either to indicate degree of power, nominal power, or when the premier is incapacitated and requires a full-time deputy to carry out his regular duties.
Selection
Officially, the vice premiers are appointed by the National People's Congress (NPC) upon the nomination of the premier. The NPC also has the power to remove the vice premiers and other state officers from office. Elections and removals are decided by majority vote.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Vice Premier of China” is senior official position in the government of China. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Vice, Premier and China, not as a finished interpretation.
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Contemporary correspondence, administrative files and participant testimony can test how later narratives organized the event or institution. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q508368. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Vice Premier of China” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.