The First Secretary was also co-currently the Chairman of the Central Military Commission making them the de facto commander-in-chief of Manchuria after 1954. In the 1946 Manchurian Constitution the party was identified as the highest organ of state, making the First Secretary hypothetically above the Premier. On the 12th March 1991 the position was abolished alongside the Communist Party and its duties were transferred to the First Secretary of the Socialist Party of Manchuria which replaced the CPM.