China still waits for Xi’s successor
Key Western media outlets barred from attending president’s speech
beijing —— China’s ruling Communist Party broke with recent precedent on Wednesday, unveiling a new leadership line-up without a clear successor to President Xi Jinping, who has become arguably the most powerful Chinese leader since Mao Zedong.
Xi led his team in order of rank on to a stage at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People, overlooking Tiananmen Square culminating a weeklong party conclave at which he laid out his vision for an increasingly prosperous China confident of its place on the world stage.
Apart from Xi, Premier Li Keqiang was the only one to retain his spot amid sweeping changes on the Politburo Standing Committee. There has been persistent speculation Xi could seek to stay on in some capacity beyond the end of his customary second five years in power, which began on Wednesday.
All seven Standing Committee members are men in their 60s and, for the first time, none was born before China’s 1949 Communist revolution.
While the Standing Committee bears the hallmarks of compromise, the new Politburo is stacked
We will also work with other nations to build a global community and make new and greater contributions to the noble cause of peace and development for all humanity. with more than a dozen Xi allies, including Chen, Beijing party boss Cai Qi, economic adviser Liu He and Ding Xuexiang, who is expected to become Xi’s chief of staff as director of the party’s General Office.
Xi and Li were first promoted to the Standing Committee at the 17th Party Congress in 2007, in a clear signal that the pair would succeed Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao and occupy the top two offices — which they did five years later.
Zhao Leji, who headed the party’s Organisation Department, which oversees personnel decisions, replaced Wang Qishan as chief of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.
The make-up of the committee, which has ultimate control over the world’s second-largest economy, appeared to be a compromise to include a blend of Xi allies and those considered loyal to party elders, including Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao, former presidents whose networks still wield influence.
Cheng Li, an expert on Chinese politics at the Brookings Institution, said Xi appeared to have traded secuaring favourable amendments to the constitution in
Major developments
We will never allow anyone, any organisation, or any political party, at any time or in any form, to separate any part of chinese territory from china.
Xi Jinping, Chinese President
exchange for a compromise on the make-up of the Standing Committee, a line-up he likened to a “team of rivals”. The member considered closest to Xi is Li Zhanshu, who has often accompanied Xi on overseas trips in a chief-of-staff-style
Xi has put a lot of his own people there. Most of Xi’s close associates are too junior to be put into the Politburo standing committee right away.
Bo Zhiyue,
beijing — President Xi Jinping on Wednesday encouraged members of the press “to visit and see more of China” when he unveiled his new leadership — but five Western media outlets were excluded from the event.
Journalists bearing a deep red invitation, with “The Great Hall of the People” emblazoned in golden script, arrived to watch Xi formally begin his second term and introduce his ruling council. But reporters from
the Economist, the Financial Times, the Guardian and the BBC were not invited, unable to listen in person to Xi’s pledge to “welcome objective reporting” and “constructive suggestions”. role as the head the party’s General Office.
Li, who is not related to the premier, was named the third-ranked member, meaning he will most likely assume the role of head of the parliament. That will not be
he has consolidated his power without making unnecessary problems for himself. The costs of keeping Wang Qishan were too high.
David Zweig, professor at HongKong university
“It is hard to avoid the conclusion that these media organisations have been singled out to send a message,” said the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China, which named the excluded publications in a Twitter statement.
“Using media access as a tool to punish journalists whose coverage the Chinese authorities disapprove of is a gross violation of the principles of press freedom.”
The media figured prominently in Xi’s speech, one day after his name was added to the ruling Communist Party’s constitution at the close of the 19th National Congress. — confirmed until parliament meets in Marchand considerably ahead of the announcement, with his political theory and “Belt and Road” infrastructure-led development strategy put into the party constitution. —
New Zealand-based expert on Chinese politics
he doesn’t want someone breathing down his neck. he wants to keep pressure on everybody and enjoy power for five or 10 years
Xean-Pierre Cabestan, China specialist at Hong Kong Baptist University