Ever since its founding, all aspects of life in the PRC have been directed, in some way, by the Communist Party. The CCP controls all government functions on the local and national level through its vast network of 73 million carefully selected Party Members and local Party organizations. It is an authoritarian, hierarchical system with power consolidated in the selected Leader (currently Hu Jintao who was preceded by Jiang Zemin, Deng Xiaoping, and Mao) who serves as President of China, Secretary General of the CCP, and Chair of the Central Military Committee. The Leader is selected by and rules along with the Politburo, in particular the nine members of the Standing Committee of the Politburo (PBSC). There is a People’s Party Congress comprised of nearly 3000 members, although their power is largely symbolic and they meet only once every five years. The military wing of the party is the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). All government officials are subject to fixed terms, term limits, and age ceilings.