Central People’s Government (1949–1954)
중앙인민정부 (1949–1954)
The first central government system of the People’s Republic of China, established on 1 October 1949 under the Common Program and the Organic Law of the Central People’s Government and lasting until the constitution took effect in September 1954. Under its highest organ, the Central People’s Government Council (chairman Mao Zedong, six vice-chairmen and fifty-six members), stood the Government Administration Council (premier Zhou Enlai) as the highest executive body, the People’s Revolutionary Military Commission, the Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate.
In depth
The Central People’s Government Council represented the state abroad and held state power at home. Of the six vice-chairmen elected by the CPPCC on 30 September 1949, Zhu De, Liu Shaoqi, Soong Ching-ling, Li Jishen, Zhang Lan and Gao Gang, three were not Communists. Its first meeting on 1 October adopted the Common Program as government policy, appointed Lin Boqu secretary-general, Zhou Enlai premier of the Government Administration Council and foreign minister, Mao chairman of the People’s Revolutionary Military Commission, Zhu De commander-in-chief of the PLA, Shen Junru president of the Supreme People’s Court and Luo Ronghuan procurator-general, and declared to all governments that it was the sole legal government representing the whole people.
On 19 October Dong Biwu, Chen Yun, Guo Moruo and Huang Yanpei became vice-premiers of the Government Administration Council, joined by Deng Xiaoping in 1952. The council held thirty-four meetings up to 1954, passing among other things the Land Reform Law on 28 June 1950. When the First National People’s Congress adopted the constitution in September 1954 the council was abolished, the state chairman and the NPC Standing Committee took its place, and the State Council replaced the Government Administration Council.