Xi reshuffles key party posts ahead of congress
BEIJING: Chinese President Xi Jinping has reshuffled three top provincial-level Communist Party posts as he seeks to place his men in key positions ahead of a once-every-five-years congress next year, and more new appointments are likely soon.
The party congress, expected to be held next autumn, will see Xi further cement his hold on power by appointing close allies into the party’s ruling inner core, the 25-member Politburo and the seven-member Politburo Standing Committee.
Xi, who doubles as Communist Party and military chief, is ranked No. 1 in the Standing Committee – the apex of power in China.
The year leading up to that will focus on Xi appointing more new people into provincial party and government positions, sources with ties to the leadership say.
In a brief dispatch on Sunday, the official Xinhua news agency named two people with whom Xi had previously worked as the new party chiefs in the strategically located southwestern province of Yunnan and the populous southern province of Hunan.
The provincial party chief outranks the governor.
In Yunnan, bordering Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam, Chen Hao replaced Li Jiheng, while in Hunan, Du Jiahao had assumed the party's top job, Xinhua said.
Both Chen and Du worked with Xi when he ran China's commercial capital, Shanghai, as its Communist Party chief for a year in 2007, according to their resumes. — Reuters