Chairman of the Communist Party of China
Liu became the Vice Chairman of the Central People's Government in 1949. In 1954, China adopted a new constitution at the first National People's Congress (NPC); at the Congress's first session, he was elected chairman of the Congress's Standing Committee, a position he held until the second NPC in 1959. From 1956 until his downfall in 1966, he ranked as the First Vice Chairman of the Communist Party of China.