General Secretary of the Communist Party
General Secretary or First Secretary is the official title of leaders of most communist parties. When a communist party is the ruling party in a socialist state, most often designated as communist states by foreign observers, the general secretary is typically the country's de facto leader. Though sometimes this leader also holds state-level positions, such as a presidency or premiership in order to hold de jure leadership of the state as well. The general secretary is normally elected by the central committee of the ruling communist party (the Workers' Party of Korea being an exception), and concurrently serves in the politburo and the secretariat.
General secretaries of ruling communist parties
Party | Title | Officeholder | Took office | Length of tenure | Ref. | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Chinese Communist Party | General Secretary of the Central Committee | Xi Jinping | 15 November 2012 | 11 years, 62 days | |||
Communist Party of Cuba | First Secretary of the Central Committee | Miguel Díaz-Canel | 19 April 2021 | 2 years, 272 days | |||
Communist Party of Vietnam | General Secretary of the Central Committee | Nguyễn Phú Trọng | 8 January 2011 | 13 years, 8 days | |||
Lao People's Revolutionary Party | General Secretary of the Central Committee | Thongloun Sisoulith | 15 January 2021 | 3 years, 1 day | |||
Workers' Party of Korea | General Secretary | Kim Jong-un | 11 April 2012 | 11 years, 280 days |