In the early 1900s, the Qing dynasty government began implementing constitutional reform in China in order to prevent a revolution.

The reforms included the Outline of the Imperial Constitution passed in 1908, which ordered that elections for provincial assemblies must be held within a year.

"[2] When the Wuchang Uprising broke out in November 1911, the imperial court summoned the general Yuan Shikai to command the Beiyang Army and put down the revolution.

[2] However, the post was briefly revived in July 1917 during Zhang Xun's attempt to restore the Qing monarchy, but he only held it for several days before Beijing was retaken by Republican forces.

[3] Zhou Enlai was appointed as premier immediately after the proclamation of the People's Republic of China in 1 October 1949.

[citation needed] With the adoption of a constitution in 1954, the post was renamed into the premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China.

[4] Since the 1980s, there has been a division of responsibilities between the premier and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) general secretary wherein the premier is responsible for the economy and the technical details of implementing government policy while the general secretary gathers the political support necessary for government policy.

[5] However, this was seen by observers to be overturned under the leadership of CCP general secretary Xi Jinping, who has centralized power around himself, and has taken responsibility over areas that were traditionally the domain of the premier, including the economy.

The premier heads the State Council[10] and is responsible for organizing and administering the Chinese civil bureaucracy.

For example, the premier is tasked with planning and implementing national economic and social development and the state budget.

[16] The State Council has the authority to impose martial law in subdivisions below the provincial-level administrative divisions, which the premier then proclaims in an order;[11][17] premier Li Peng once used the authority to impose martial law in parts of Beijing and to order the military crackdown of the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989.