This book investigates the legal and political evolution of Chinese presidency from the period of its forerunner in the 1930s, its establishment in 1954 to its abolition in 1975, and its restoration in 1982, and discovers that the presidency has evolved from a traditional Chinese title into a political position and then a state institution that has the constitutional appearance of a Western style semi-presidency. However, politically it has functioned in a Stalinist party-state with Chinese characteristics, whose candidates have been produced according to the CCP's step-by-step succession...