China’s Xi emerges from Communist Party Congress with more power

China’s top leader Xi Jinping is set to begin a norm-breaking third term with an even greater concentration of power, after retiring key party leaders from the top ruling body to make room for his own allies.To get more news about 20th national congress, you can visit shine news official website.

The week-long Communist Party Congress concluded Saturday with the ushering in of a new Central Committee – the party’s 200-member central leadership – which will in turn select a new slate of top leaders on Sunday.

Premier Li Keqiang and Wang Yang – neither of whom is seen to have close ties with Xi – are not included in the new Central Committee, meaning they have left China’s top ruling body and will go into full retirement.

Xi is widely expected to be appointed the party’s general secretary for another five years on Sunday, paving the way for potential lifelong rule. At 69, he has exceeded the informal retirement age of 68 for senior party leaders. Xi’s name is included in the list of new Central Committee members.

Li and Wang are both 67 and eligible to serve another five years on the party’s supreme Politburo Standing Committee under retirement norms. Instead, they are retiring early from the party’s apex of power, in a break with precedents in recent decades.

Li, China’s second-highest ranking leader, is required to step down in March as premier by the country’s constitution, which only allows the premier to serve two terms. Wang, who heads the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, was previously seen by some as a potential successor to Li.Their surprised departure opens two more spots on the Standing Committee for Xi to fill with his own allies and proteges. Two other members on the body are past retirement age and set to step down.

A standing committee line-up that fills the body with Xi loyalists would “change the power sharing arrangement that China has seen since the late 1970s,” according to Victor Shih, an expert on elite Chinese politics at the University of California San Diego.

“Informally, Xi Jinping’s powers are (already) extremely high. He restructured the military, cleansed the security apparatus of other influence, but formally speaking in the Politburo Standing Committee, even right now, there is a balance of power, where officials historically unaffiliated with him, still held seats – that may come to an end,” said Shih, adding such an outcome could create an “unhealthy dynamic” where Xi is surround by people unused to giving critical policy feedback.

Several proteges or allies of Xi have been flagged by watchers of elite Chinese politics as likely candidates for promotion. Those include Chongqing party chief Chen Min’er, 62, one of Xi’s longtime close allies and proteges, Ding Xuexiang, 60, who runs the General Office of the Communist Party, a position similar to being Xi’s chief of staff, and Shanghai party chief Li Qiang, 63 – who faced a fierce public backlash earlier this year over the city’s painful two-month Covid lockdown.The party’s five-yearly national congress is a carefully choreographed political theater, meant to showcase the unity and legitimacy of the party.

But Saturday’s closing ceremony in the Great Hall of the People featured a dramatic moment, when former top leader Hu Jintao was led out of the event unexpectedly.

Hu, 79, was seated in a prominent position at the front table on stage, directly next to his successor Xi, when he was approached by a staff member, according to images and video of the meeting.

The circumstances around his departure are unclear, but he appeared initially reluctant to leave. He has been seen in increasingly frail health in public in recent years.