Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of China’s ruling party, secured an unprecedented third term, consolidating his power as the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party ended on Oct. 22 with a major shake-up at the top, retiring veteran heavyweights including Premier Li Keqiang.
Immediately after the 20th party congress concluded on Saturday, state news agency Xinhua announced the 205 members of the new Central Committee, which oversees the party’s 97 million members. On the expected lines, Xi’s name was on the Committee members’ list, effectively confirming that he will carry on as China’s leader for another five years after a decade in power, while Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s name also figured in the list despite crossing the retirement age of 68 years. The 20th Central Committee, with 205 full members, will report to the 25-member Politburo, which will be headed by the Politburo Standing Committee (PBSC).
On Sunday, the new central committee – the 20th Central Committee – will hold its first plenary session and will vote on candidates for the current seven-member PBSC, which represents the apex of China’s political power and is led by the 69-year-old Xi Jinping as General Secretary. It will also elect the 25 members of the Politburo. After that the new members will follow Xi at a press briefing in descending ranking order, offering clues about the country’s next premier who is no. 2 in party hierarchy.
Out of the seven members of the current top leadership – the 19th Politburo Standing Committee, Xi and two close aides remain, ideology tsar Wang Huning and anti-corruption chief Zhao Leji while other four members – Premier Li Keqiang, 67; National People’s Congress chairman Li Zhanshu, 72; Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference chairman Wang Yang, 67; and Vice-Premier Han Zheng, 68 have been shown the door and are missing from the list.
As these four leaders failed to make it to the list of 20th central committee – means they will not get entry into politburo or the standing committee, which effectively means they will go into full retirement from the politics, two of them within the customary retirement age limit of 68 years. Experts said, by retiring the four veterans, Xi opens more seats at the top for the promotion of his loyalist younger leaders, as he consolidates power by crushing the factionalism and infighting that marked the tenures of former leaders Hu Jintao and Jiang Zemin.
In a shocking development, former President Hu Jintao, 79, sitting on the left of President Xi, was mysteriously escorted out from the presidium at the Beijing’s Great Hall of the People in the full media glare, before the twice-a-decade National Congress concluded. It was not clear why Xi’s predecessor was led away, apparently against his wishes, from what is a highly choreographed event. He briefly exchanged words with Xi and Premier Li Keqiang on his way out. Experts said, while the abrupt exit could be related to Hu’s health, it may also reflect a power struggle as the former president’s unhappiness about his closest proteges’ removal from the leadership, thus collapse of his power base.
While the 20th party congress decided the leadership and party hierarchy, changes in key government posts – including that of premier of China’s State Council will be confirmed in March by China’s rubber stamp parliament. In the last decade of his rule, Xi has promoted many leading groups to party commissions and made himself the chair of these commissions, including groups that oversee finance and economics. While the premier is the head of the State Council, or China’s cabinet, most ministries have a direct reporting line to the party which, experts said, makes Premier’s job even difficult.
Apart from breaking many precedents, 20th party congress under Xi’s dominance also played with the customary rule of “7 up 8 down” meaning a leader with 67 years of age will stay in the central committee and politburo but 68 years of age will lead him to retire.
In the list released by Xinhua on Sunday, also missing from the Central Committee list are senior diplomat Yang Jiechi and Vice-Premier Liu He. Foreign Minister Wang Yi, 69, however is among the new Central Committee members suggesting he is likely to take up the Politburo seat vacated by Yang Jiechi, who will retire after the congress. Zhang Youxia, a vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission, also remained on the Central Committee even though he is 72 years old. But former Xinjiang party chief Chen Guanguo, 66, is not on the committee.
20th party congress also adopted amendments to the party constitution aimed at cementing the core status of Xi, closer to that of modern China’s founding father, Mao Zedong. It also further incorporated Xi’s political thoughts in the party constitution indicating his unchallenged power. Other notable amendments are inclusion of Xi’s flagship “Common Prosperity goal”, two Centenary Goals, “fighting spirit”, enhancing political loyalty in the military and statement on “resolutely opposing and deterring separatists seeking “Taiwan independence”” – noticeably stronger language as compared to the previous reference of “strengthening the unity of all the Chinese people incl. in Hong Kong and Macao Special Administrative Regions and Taiwan.
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