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Anticipating China's leadership shake-up
It remains to be seen, however, whether President Xi as lingdao hexin will follow in the footsteps of Mao, Deng and Jiang, who ruled the big nation either formally or informally without any fixed time limits.
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A stall selling souvenirs with China's President Xi Jinping's face. In 2016, when the PCC unanimously elevated him to the rank of core leader (lingdao hexin), a status that only Mao Zhedong, Deng Xiaoping and Jiang Zemin enjoyed before him. (Shutterstock.com/Stripped Pixel)
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hina’s authorities have tightened security in Beijing to ensure the National Party Congress (NPC), starting on Wednesday, will run in an orderly fashion.
The quinquennial congress, to be attended by more than 2,000 representatives from across the country, will review the country’s overall progress, but more importantly, it aims to shake-up members of the Politburo Standing Committee (PSC), the party’s most powerful decision-making body, which currently has seven members.
As the party’s general secretary, President Xi Jinping leads the committee and is flanked by six influential members, namely Premier Li Keqiang, Zhang Dejiang, Yu Zhensheng, Liu Yunshan, Wang Qishan and Zhang Gaoli.
According to a well-established party norm, five of the seven currently serving members, namely Zhang Dejiang, Yu Zhensheng, Liu Yunshan, Wang Qishan and Zhang Gaoli, will end their terms this year, as they have reached the mandatory retirement age of 68. But observers have debated whether President Xi will retain the top graft-buster Wang, 69, who is considered a key figure behind President Xi’s successful anticorruption agenda.
