Beijing: Chinese President Xi Jinping began his second term as Communist Party chief on Wednesday with a new line-up of top officials and the most power a Chinese leader has seen in decades.
Xi announced himself that the party had appointed him as leader for another five years, before proceeding to introduce the new members of the Politburo Standing Committee during a short ceremony at the Great Hall of the People.
Apart from Xi and his Premier Li Keqiang, all of the other members of the committee, a powerful inner circle of political officials, are newcomers.
Furthermore, Xi has not promoted anyone young enough or with the right background to become his successor, fuelling speculation that Xi plans to remain in power, in some form, beyond the usual two terms.
China’s previous three presidents had groomed potential successors years in advance in order to ensure a smooth transition of power.
A Xi heir would have to, according to convention, be born in the 1960s. But the youngest standing committee member is Zhao Leji, born in 1957.
The other new members in the standing committee are Li Zhanshu, Wang Yang, Wang Huning and Han Zheng. The seven men stood before journalists as Xi listed his goals of developing China as a “moderately prosperous society” by 2021 and a strong global power by the middle of the century.
No women have ever served on the standing committee. The larger, 25-member Politburo includes one woman.
“It is my conviction that the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation will become a reality in the course of reform and opening-up,”Xi said.
His agenda has been to build China up as a global superpower while attempting to restructure its economy, which is currently affected by slower growth and soaring debt.
All of the new members of the standing committee have worked with Xiin the past — a sign that he has managed to further consolidate power. Li Zhanshu, a longtime friend, was formerly his chief of staff. Zhao —who will also head the feared anti-graft commission — is a former party official from Shaanxi, Xi’s home province. And Han served as mayor of Shanghai when Xi was party secretary there.
Li Keqiang, who is starting his second term as premier, and Wang Yang, a vice premier known for advocating economic reforms, both rose from the Communist Youth League, which used to be a strong faction of the Communist Party, along with the Shanghai clique. The youth league had supported former president Hu Jintao, and the Shanghai group was behind his predecessor, Jiang Zemin.
A symbol of Xi’s unusual consolidation of power was the enshrinement on Tuesday of his political philosophy into the party constitution with his name. — dpa
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