Party chief of the Communist Party of China

In the Politics of the People's Republic of China, a party chief (Chinese: 党委书记), variously called a party boss, and officially termed the Communist Party Committee Secretary for a certain region, is the leader of the local Communist Party of China division, and in most cases, the "de facto" first-in-charge of its area of jurisdiction. Aside from the regional or municipal affix, the title does not change regardless of the size of the jurisdiction.

From the top down

Beginning at the provincial level, China's party-government dual administrative system arranges a hierarchy by which the party chief is in charge of determining the direction of policy as well as personnel changes, and the corresponding government leader is responsible for implementing party policy and arranging the annual budget, as well as other everyday government matters and ceremonial tasks. The list of party chief levels is as follows:

*At the provincial level, the party chief is known as CPC Provincial Committee Secretary (省委书记), while the corresponding government position is known as Governor.
*At the prefecture or municipal level, the party chief is known as CPC Municipal Committee Secretary (市委书记), while the corresponding government position is known as Mayor.
*At the county level, the party chief is known as CPC County Committee Secretary (县委书记), while the corresponding government position is known as the County Governor.
*At the township level, the party chief is known as CPC Township/town Committee Secretary (乡委书记), while the corresponding government position is known as the Magistrate.
*At the village level, the local party chief, known as the Village Party Branch Secretary (村支部书记) heads a committee of around ten people to make executive decisions related to the village. The process is not bureaucratic, and therefore the party chief at this level is not considered part of the Chinese civil service.

In writing and the mass media, the "CPC" designation before the title is not used often because it is assumed that "Provincial Committee Secretary" refers to the Communist Party secretary.

A party chief may concurrently hold the corresponding government position. The most recent example of such a case was Liaoning's party chief and Mayor Zhang Wenyue.