Xi Jinping, China’s strongest leader in decades, bolstered his status today by winning a third term as Communist Party general secretary, elevating allies to key posts and refusing to name a possible successor.
Xi came first when the new seven-man formation of the Communist Party’s Politburo Standing Committee (PCC) took to a stage set up inside the Great Hall of the People in Beijing after a closed-door plenary session among 370 delegates from the Central Committee of the party.
The formation of the new Politburo Standing Committee, the pinnacle of power in China, is dominated by Xi Jinping’s allies and protégés. Neither is of the age and experience that would mark them as a viable successor.
While the Communist Party does not set term limits on his top political office, Xi is breaking the cycle of decades of orderly succession established by his predecessors.
The absence of an obvious successor also suggests that Xi may seek to stay in power beyond his third term, which ends in 2027.
Thus, Xi Jinping will become the third longest-serving Chinese leader at the head of the CCP, surpassed only by Mao Zedong, who led the Party for more than thirty years, and Jiang Zemin, who served as general secretary for more than 30 years. 13 years, serving two and a half terms.
Deng Xiaoping, China’s paramount leader from the late 1970s until his death in 1997, never officially held the post of party general secretary.
According to the official Xinhua news agency, the new rank order of the Politburo Standing Committee is made up of General Secretary Xi Jinping, 69, Li Qiang, 63, Zhao Leji, 65, Wang Huning, 67, Cai Qi, 66, Ding Xuexiang. , 60 and Li Xi, 66.
This means that Li Qiang will take over as China’s prime minister.
Cai Qi is the first secretary of the Party secretariat, replacing Wang Huning as responsible for the day-to-day management of the organization’s main affairs.
Zhao Leji, now third in the hierarchy, is likely to head the National People’s Congress, the country’s highest legislative body, while Wang Huning will take over the leadership of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, an important platform for mobilizing resources and support. of the outside. broken country.
Li Xi will head the powerful anti-corruption agency, the Central Commission for Inspection and Discipline, replacing Zhao Leji.
Outside the Politburo Standing Committee are Li Keqiang, Li Zhanshu, Wang Yang and Han Zheng.
Thus any sign of opposition to Xi disappeared, with Li Keqiang, the current prime minister, removed from the Standing Committee, and Vice Premier Hu Chunhua excluded from the Politburo. The two were seen as the only representatives of the faction of former President Hu Jintao, who was apparently forced to leave the congress on Saturday during the closing session.
Xi thus removes the representatives of the Communist Youth League, considered the most liberal and pragmatic faction of the country’s leadership, from the pinnacle of power.
The CCP, which has more than 90 million members, is organized in a pyramid structure. At the top is the Politburo, which is now made up of 24 people: army officers, provincial leaders and senior Party cadres. Within this group is the Politburo Standing Committee, which is made up of the seven members in charge of the most crucial political decisions. The head of the Permanent Commission is the Secretary General of the Party.
For the first time in 25 years, the Politburo formation does not include women.
Sun Chunlan, was the only woman member of the Politburo, but she has retired and none of the new members are women.
The new composition of the Central Committee, a kind of party parliament with 205 members, includes only 11 women.
“Women remain severely underrepresented at the top of Chinese politics,” the Neican think tank noted in a note published today. “Women represent 48.8% of the Chinese population and 29.4% of the members of the Communist Party (…), but their representation in the Central Committee is only 4.9%”, according to the publication.
China’s current leader, Xi Jinping, emerged during his first decade in power as one of the strongest leaders in modern Chinese history, almost comparable to Mao Zedong, the founder of the People’s Republic, who led the country from 1949. to 1976.
Source: TSF
