Abstract: The Fourth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China put forward that the improvement of governance ability be regarded as a major task of cadre construction in the New Era. The frequency and complexity of major public health emergencies push the leading cadres to the front stage, bringing a major test to their governance ability. Examining the problems - slow response, belated media guidance, poor information communication, weak resource integration and low crisis handling ability - of leadership in response to major public health emergencies is significant for optimizing leadership and governance capabilities. Ability of the leaders to deal with crisis is influenced by complexity of public crisis situation, competence adaptability, effectiveness of system and mechanism, concept of emergency response and legal situation. Based on this, we should deepen the awareness of the importance of crisis management, pay attention to the cultivation of leading cadres' ability, improve the leadership system and mechanism construction, consolidate the emergency concept and legal foundation, etc. to optimize the leadership crisis management ability, promote the modernization of public health crisis management with the modernization of main body capabilities.

Key words: public health emergency, crisis management, governance capacity, leader