[5] On June 6, 1936, Zhang Guotao officially declared the dissolution of the "Second Central Committee" and his resignation as "Party Chairman", a position that was not formally acknowledged by the CCP.

[8] As his replacement, Mao Zedong, who had been the de facto leader of the party since the Long March, was named Chairman of the Politburo of the CCP Central Committee (Chinese: 中国共产党中央政治局主席).

The 7th CCP National Congress introduced the post of Chairman of the Central Committee into the party constitution, and in 1956 the General Secretary was given the day-to-day management of the Secretariat.

By the 1980s, the CCP leadership desired to prevent a single leader from rising above the party, as Mao had done.

[12] The 1969 Party Constitution (adopted by the 9th Congress) introduced the post of a single vice chairman, in order to give more authority to Lin Biao as Mao's successor.

In 1976, Hua Guofeng was named the first vice chairman of the Central Committee, a post previously held unofficially by Liu Shaoqi from 1956 to 1966; Zhou Enlai from 1973 to 1975; and Deng Xiaoping in 1975 in the capacity of "Vice Chairman in charge of the day-to-day work of the Central Committee".