The post was first introduced in March 1943, when the Politburo decided to discharge Zhang Wentian as General Secretary.

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).

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

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".