Chinese President Xi Jinping has secured a third consecutive five-year term as party chief, making him the most powerful Chinese leader since party founder Mao Zedong.
The 20th Party Congress, the most important meeting of the ruling Chinese Communist party, saw about 2,400 delegates gather in Beijing to vote on major reshuffles and constitutional changes.
“I was reelected as the general secretary of the CPC central committee,” Xi said in opening remarks.“The Chinese people, led by the party, have put in “sweat and toil” to “open a Chinese path to modernization,” Xi said in a speech.
Xi said in his speech that the key goal is to “accelerate the realization of high-level scientific and technological self-reliance and self-improvement.” China should be “guided by the national strategic needs, gather strength to carry out original and leading scientific and technological breakthroughs, and resolutely win the battle of key and core technologies,” he said.
7 men to lead China’s Communist Party
Xi and the other Standing Committee members appeared for the first time as a group before reporters Sunday in the Great Hall of the People.
The Chinese Communist Party also unveiled the names of the members of Politburo Standing Committee – China’s equivalent of the presidential cabinet. The men who will rule China for the next five years include: Li Qiang, Zhao Leji, Wang Huning, Cai Qi, Ding Xuexiang and Li Xi. Three are holdovers from the previous committee while the four newcomers are all Xi loyalists.
Li Qiang, the second-ranked member after Xi and the party secretary of Shanghai, is likely to be appointed the next premier when Li Keqiang steps down from premiership in March after two terms. The 63-year-old in charge of Shanghai city’s two-month lockdown earlier this year and he is a long-time loyalist to Xi. His elevation to the Politburo Standing Committee appears to signify that loyalty to Xi is preferred over public popularity when it comes to political advancement.
“All of his rivals, potential and real, have been forced out of the Politburo Standing Committee and Xi loyalists took their place. The new Politburo is an emphatic statement of Xi’s dominance over the party” said Richard McGregor, senior fellow for East Asia at the Lowy Institute think tank in Sydney.
Analysts say that the third consecutive term has elevated Xi Jinping’s status as the most powerful Chinese leader since Mao Zedong. Xi has defied unspoken rules that previous leaders instated by stepping down after two five-year terms and the third term. Experts say that Xi’s third term indicates that China has moved towards one-man rule after decades of power-sharing among top leaders.
“He will have his third term as a very strong leader. He consolidated power and placed his own people in the standing committee,” said Yang Zhang, assistant professor at the School of International Service at American University.
