The Party Constitution stipulates that the Political Bureau, the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau and the General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee are elected by members and alternate members of the Central Committee in plenary session.

The General Secretary of the Central Committee must be a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau and is responsible for convening the meetings of the Political Bureau and its Standing Committee and presides over the work of the Secretariat, according to the Party Constitution.

The Secretariat of the Central Committee is the working body of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee and its Standing Committee. The members of the Secretariat are nominated by the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee and are subject to endorsement by the Central Committee in plenary session.

The Party Constitution does not have articles that demand the election of the General Secretary of the Central Committee be conducted in a multi-candidate way.

The 17th CPC Central Committee held its first plenary session on Oct. 22, 2007, in which 204 members and 167 alternate members of the Central Committee elected Hu Jintao as the General Secretary of the Central Committee. The 25-member Political Bureau of the 17th CPC Central Committee and the nine-member Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the 17th CPC Central Committee were also elected at the session.