The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (Chinese: 中国共产党中央委员会; pinyin: Zhōngguó Gòngchǎndǎng Zhōngyāng Wěiyuánhuì), formerly as Central Executive Committee (中央执行委员会) before 1927, is the highest authority within the Communist Party of China elected by the Party National Congresses. The Central Committee has about 300 members and nominally appoints the Politburo of the Communist Party of China.

While the Central Committee does not exercise authority as a corporate body in the same way that a legislature would, it is an important body in that it contains the leading figures of the party, state, and army. In contrast to Party Congresses, which have always been ceremonial, full meetings of the Central Committee have been on occasion arenas in which there are real debates and decisions on party policy. An example of this was the Third Plenary Session of the 11th CPC Central Committee in 1978, at which China formally embarked on a project of Chinese economic reform. The Central Committee is larger and has a somewhat more diverse ideological spectrum than the Politburo.

Some analysts have suggested that as part of his effort to increase intra-party democracy that Hu Jintao intends to increase the power held by the Central Committee. Two significant acts taken by Hu have been the cancellation of the traditional August leadership conference at Beidaihe, and the comparative large amount of public coverage given to the plenary Central Committee meeting in October 2003.