The agenda for the meetings is controlled by the CCP general secretary and decisions are made by consensus rather than by majority vote.

[6] In 2017, for the 19th Central Committee Politburo, aside from the heads of the four main institutional hierarchies—the CCP, the National People's Congress, the State Council and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, there were six members each holding posts in the party, the national government, the regional governments, and three in the military.

Before that, the Party under Deng Xiaoping deliberately encouraged turnover by imposing term limits and retirement ages.

[9] Since the 17th National Congress, the official way of electing the Politburo was through a process called "democratic recommendation" (民主推荐) where the CCP conducted a straw poll of 200 candidates to the Politburo, which were factored into the final list of candidates presented at the National Congress of the CCP.

Xi Jinping’s persistence in his third five-year term represents a departure from the pattern of decade-long reigns for leaders, such as Mao and Deng.

Teaching, research, and information technology was modernized to enable distance education throughout the party school system.

The young cadre is trained in applying their knowledge creatively and independently, so as to deal flexibly with complex issues and accept continuous learning.

[16]: 57  The General Secretary of the Central Committee is responsible for convening the meetings of the Politburo and decides their agenda.

These lectures often end with "work recommendations" for the Politburo and conclude with a speech by the General Secretary on the study topic.

The collective study sessions are often publicized and play an important role to signal leadership priorities to cadres.