On Sunday, Xi Jinping, who is online to win a third five-year term as China’s president, will rule over the Communist Party‘s twice-decade congress’ most dramatic event: the announcement of the members of its illustrious Politburo Standing Committee.
By removing presidential term limits in 2018, Xi broke tradition and began to rule for more than ten years. It is even more difficult to forecast who will accompany him on the standing committee because of his breaking of norms as China’s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong.
A severe economic slowdown, discontent with his zero-COVID policy, and China’s growing alienation from the West—exacerbated by his support for Vladimir Putin—seem to have had little impact on the 69-year-old leader’s hold on power.
New Leadership
The fresh leadership will be unveiled when Xi, expected to be re-elected as China’s top position party director general, enters a press room at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People in descending order of rank.
The line-up will indicate who is in and out and who will succeed Premier Li Keqiang when he retires in March and will provide party observers with fertile ground for speculation about how far Xi has solidified his hold on power by nominating loyalists.
According to some experts and diplomats, the composition of the standing committee and the identity of the premier are less significant now than they were in the past since Xi has abandoned the practice of collective leadership.
