Mao Zedong until September 1976 and then Deng Xiaoping from June 1981 In 1989, Deng had Party General Secretary Jiang Zemin, who had no prior military experience, appointed to chair the Military Affairs Commission in order to help build up Jiang's political base for the succession, but in reality Deng retained supreme military command authority until physical incapacity ended his role.
Jiang in somewhat similar Fashion, made his likely successor Hu Jintao the vice chair of the Military Affairs Commission in 1999. although Jiang chose to retain his chairmanship of the Military Affairs Commission even after he stepped down from the Politburo in November 2002