Founded in July 1921, the Communist Party of China today has more than 67 million members. The ruling party of the People's Republic of China, the CPC holds a National Congress every five years to elect a Central Committee that in turn elects a Political Bureau led by a Standing Committee. The main agencies of the CPC include the Party national congress, the Central Committee, the Central Political Bureau, the Political Bureau's Standing Committee, the Central Secretariat, the Central Military Commission and the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. The Party national congress is held once every five years. When the national congress is not in session, the Central Committee is the highest leading organ of the CPC. The 16th National Congress of the CPC, held in November 2002, elected a new Central Committee and a new Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, achieving a smooth succession of the CPC's central leadership. The First Plenary Session of the 16th CPC Central Committee elected Hu Jintao as the new general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, Hu Jintao, Wu Bangguo, Wen Jiabao, Jia Qinglin, Zeng Qinghong, Huang Ju, Wu Guanzheng, Li Changchun and Luo Gan as members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee. It also approved Jiang Zemin as chairman of the Central Military Commission and Wu Guanzheng as the secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.
(Note: Hu Jintao succeeded Jiang Zemin as chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC) of the Communist Party of China (CPC) at the Fourth Plenum of the 16th CPC Central Committee, which was held in mid-September 2004. The four-day plenum approved Hu to take over the CMC chairmanship after accepting Jiang's resignation.
The plenum also approved Xu Caihou, 61, as CMC vice chairman, and Chen Bingde, Qiao Qingchen, Zhang Dingfa and Jing Zhiyuan as CMC members.)
