chủ tịch

Sino-Vietnamese word from 主席, composed of 主 (“main; principal”) and 席 (“seat”), from Chinese 主席 (zhǔxí).

• (Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [t͡ɕu˧˩ tïk̟̚˧˨ʔ]
• (Huế) IPA^(key): [t͡ɕʊw˧˨ tɨt̚˨˩ʔ]
• (Hồ Chí Minh City) IPA^(key): [cʊw˨˩˦ tɨt̚˨˩˨]

chủ tịch

1. (government, communism) a president

   Chủ tịch nước

   the (executive) President (of Vietnam)

   Chủ tịch Việt Nam

   President of Vietnam

   Chủ tịch Trung Quốc

   President of China

   Chủ tịch Phi-đen Ca-xtơ-rô

   President Fidel Castro

   Ai là tổng thống Việt Nam ?
   Việt Nam không có tổng thống. Việt Nam chỉ có chủ tịch.

   Who's the "capitalist president" of Vietnam?
   There's no such thing in Vietnam. Vietnam's headed by a "communist president".

2. (business) a president
3. (government, communism) a chairperson

   Chủ tịch Quốc hội

   the Chairman of the National Assembly (of Vietnam)

4. (business) a chairperson

   chủ tịch hội đồng quản trị

   the chair(wo)man of the board of directors

• Both chủ tịch and tổng thống translate to the English "president", but chủ tịch is used strictly to refer to the leaders of a few self-proclaimed "socialist"/"communist" countries (particularly Vietnam, China, Cuba and Laos) who are not actually elected, but appointed by the ruling political party, and then formally "re-elected" by representatives in the party; while tổng thống refers to elected leaders in democracies. While the use of "president" as a translation of chủ tịch is usually subject for mockery in Western media, the distinction is made abundantly clear in Vietnam, and possibly in China. A socialist/communist chủ tịch is the head of state who represents and addresses their whole nation, in roughly the same way a president, a chancellor, a constitutional monarch or a prime minister of other countries do.