Chinese President Xi Jinping is all set for an unprecedented third five-year term as the key Congress of the ruling Communist party on Saturday cemented his power further, edging out several senior leaders, including moderate number two leader Premier Li Keqiang in a major shake-up at the top.
Xi, 69, who was elected to the powerful Central Committee by Congress despite crossing the official retirement age of 68 and completing 10-year tenure, will get re-elected as the General Secretary of the party on Sunday for a record third-term – a privilege only accorded to party founder Mao Zedong.
The once-in-a-five-year Congress concluded its week-long session on Saturday by electing 205 regular Central Committee members and 171 alternate members.
Xi was elected to the Central Committee, which will meet on Sunday to elect a 25-member Political Bureau which in turn will choose seven or more members to the Standing Committee to govern the country.
The Standing Committee in turn will elect the General Secretary, who heads the party and the country. After the election of the Standing Committee on Sunday, Xi along with the new team is due to appear before the media who are kept in a closed-loop COVID quarantine in a hotel here.
While Xi further consolidated his power with many of his own associates, making it to the Central Committee, several senior leaders were edged out.
Several names, especially that of 67-year-old Premier Li, the nation’s No. 2 official; National People’s Congress chairman Li Zhanshu, 72; Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference chairman Wang Yang, 67; and Vice-Premier Han Zheng, 68, were conspicuously missing from the Central Committee list.
They are all part of the outgoing seven-member Standing Committee headed by Xi.
Both Li and Wang are regarded as moderates. Li, who steered the Chinese economy for the past ten years and appeared at unease over Xi’s emergence of “core leader” on par with Mao, had already announced his decision to quit as Premier early this year.
He chose to retire, though he is one year short of the official retirement age of 68 set by the party.
Among the other notables, Foreign Minister and State Councillor Wang Yi, 69, was elected to the Central Committee despite crossing the retirement age as he has emerged as a close confidant of Xi on foreign policy issues and expected to make it to the Political Bureau on Sunday.
His senior colleague and former foreign minister Yang Jiechi, who was also state councillor, did not make it to the Central Committee.
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