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On Saturday, the Chinese Communist Party supported Xi Jinping’s “core position” in the government, all but guaranteeing him an unprecedented third term. After the week-long summit in Beijing, China’s governing party authorized a broad reorganization in which many prominent officials, including Premier Li Keqiang, resigned to make room for Xi to select new friends.
The 2,300 party delegates’ essentially rubber-stamp conference was precisely planned, as Xi was anxious to prevent any shocks as he cemented his rule for the next five years.
Hu Jintao, the former leader, was escorted out of the closing ceremony in an unexpected action that jarred the proceedings in the Great Hall of the People. No formal justification was provided.
According to a unanimously adopted resolution on amendments to the party charter, delegates subsequently supported a call for all party members to “uphold Comrade Xi Jinping’s basic stance on the Party Central Committee and in the Party as a whole.”
On Sunday, just after the first meeting of the new Central Committee, Xi will almost certainly be introduced as general secretary.
As a result, Xi will be able to easily win re-election to a third term as China’s leader, which is scheduled to be revealed in March at the government’s annual parliamentary sessions.
Shortly after, just before the closing ceremony, a new Central Committee of around 200 top Party leaders was chosen.
Four out of the seven members of the Party’s Standing Committee, the highest level of authority, will retire, according to a list of the newly elected group’s leaders.
Among them were the current premier, Li Keqiang, as well as Wang Yang, Han Zheng, and Li Zhanshu, who were all members of the Politburo Standing Committee and were tipped to succeed Li.
Given that they had reached the informal age limit of 68 for Politburo-level officials — a restriction that did not apply to Xi, who is 69 years old — Han and Li Zhanshu were generally anticipated to resign.
Wang and Li Keqiang, both 67, might have served another five years on the 25-member Politburo or Standing Committee.
Yang Jiechi, a senior diplomat, and Liu He, a leader in the economy, are two other prominent Communist Party high-ranking officials who are not present on the new Central Committee.
Using rubber stamps
Analysts were waiting with bated breath to see whether the charter will be changed to include “Xi Jinping Thought” as a core value, elevating Xi to the status of Mao Zedong.
Although the resolution referred to the credo as “the Marxism of contemporary China and of the 21st century” and said that it “embodies the greatest Chinese culture and ethos of this age,” this did not happen.
In order to be able to reign forever, Xi already scrapped the two-term limit for president in 2018.
The Congress essentially solidified Xi’s status as the most powerful figure in China since Mao.
If Xi would choose a prospective successor to the Politburo Standing Committee is one of the important concerns that remain. When the Standing Committee is revealed on Sunday, this could have an answer.
