Central committee in the context of "Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam"

The Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, officially the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, is the highest organ when the national congress is not in session and is tasked with carrying out congress resolutions, directing all party work, and representing the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) externally. It is currently composed of 205 full members and 171 alternate members (see list). Members are nominally elected once every five years by the National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party. In practice, the selection process is done privately, usually through consultation of the CCP's Politburo and its corresponding Standing Committee.

The Central Committee is, formally, the "party's highest organ of authority" when the National Congress is not in a plenary session. According to the CCP's constitution, the Central Committee is vested with the power to elect the General Secretary and the members of the Politburo and its Standing Committee, as well as the Central Military Commission. It endorses the composition of the Secretariat and the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. It also oversees the work of various executive national organs of the CCP. The administrative activities of the Central Committee are carried out by the Central Committee's General Office. The General Office forms the support staff of the central organs that work on the Central Committee's behalf in between plenary sessions (plenums).

A politburo (/ˈpɒlɪtbjʊəroʊ/ ) or political bureau is the highest organ of the central committee in communist parties. The term is also sometimes used to refer to similar organs in socialist and Islamist parties, such as the Political Bureau of Hamas. Politburos are part of the governing structure in most former and existing communist states.

The title of General Secretary or First Secretary is commonly used for the leaders of most communist parties. When a communist party is the ruling party of a communist state the general secretary is typically the country's de facto leader. Except in Vietnam, it is not uncommon for this leader to also assume state-level positions, such as president or premiership, thereby also becoming the de jure leader of the state. The position of general secretary is typically elected by the communist party's central committee (with the Workers' Party of Korea as an exception), and the holder of this title also serves on the communist party's politburo and secretariat.

Cabinet collective responsibility, also known as collective ministerial responsibility, is a constitutional convention in parliamentary systems and a cornerstone of the Westminster system of government, that members of the cabinet must publicly support all governmental decisions made in Cabinet, even if they do not privately agree with them. This support includes voting for the government in the legislature. This convention formed in the 19th century in the United Kingdom. Some political parties, most commonly communist, apply a similar convention of democratic centralism to their central committee.

If a member of the Cabinet wishes to openly object to a Cabinet decision then they are obliged to resign from their position in the Cabinet.

The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the highest organ of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) between Congresses. Elected by the Congress, the Central Committee emerged as the core nexus of executive and administrative authority in the party, with de facto supremacy over the government of the Soviet Union. It was composed of full members and candidate (non-voting) members. Real authority was often concentrated in smaller, more agile organs elected by the Committee, namely the Politburo, Secretariat, and Orgburo (dissolved in 1952), as well as in the post of General Secretary. Theoretically a collective leadership, the Committee increasingly became a rubber-stamp institution, particularly from the late 1920s onward under the dominance of Joseph Stalin.

The Central Committee originated in the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (RSDLP), established in 1898, and continued in the Bolshevik party, established in 1912. After the Bolsheviks seized power in the October Revolution of 1917, the Committee assumed a key leadership role, functioning both as a strategic body and a conduit for implementing party directives in the expanding Soviet state. Stalin used his control over personnel appointments to dominate the Committee and ensure ideological conformity, and during his rule the Committee's composition often reflected factional struggles, purges, and leadership reshufflings. During the Great Purge of 1936 to 1938, a significant portion of its members were executed or imprisoned.