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The following is a look at the seven men making up the Communist Party of China’s all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee in order of rank.
Three of them are holdovers from the previous body, including General Secretary Xi Jinping, who has received a precedent-breaking third term as party head. The four newcomers are all Xi loyalists, while the exclusion of Premier Li Keqiang and head of the top advisory body Wang Yang are seen as signs that representatives of other factions will no longer be welcome on the top body.
ALL-POWERFUL LEADER XI JINPING
Xi laid down the conditions for his continuation in power with the elimination of term limits. Even before then, he had sidelined rivals and accumulated ultimate authority by assuming the leadership of working groups operating outside the ministries that oversee everything from national security to economic policy. His third term is being hailed as a return to one-man rule after a period of more collegial decision making.
Xi is what is known as a “princeling,“ the son of one of Mao Zedong’s comrades in the founding of the People’s Republic who despite falling out of favor returned to implement important economic reforms. Xi Jinping, meanwhile, worked his way through a series of provincial postings until being appointed vice president and then party leader in 2012, and state president in 2013.
Xi, who has a law degree from Beijing’s prestigious Tsinghua University, has consolidated power through a sweeping anti-corruption campaign, reasserted the role of the state sector in the economy, expanded the military and led ruthless crackdowns on civil rights in Hong Kong and Xinjiang. He is also known for his glamorous wife, People’s Liberation Army vocalist Peng Liyuan, although the two have traveled little together since the onset of the COVID-19 outbreak.
SHANGHAI CHIEF LI QIANG
Li Qiang has been party secretary of Shanghai, China’s largest city and financial hub, since 2017 and was parachuted into the Politburo Standing Committee, possibly as a future premier. The Shanghai post is one of China’s most important and was previously held by Xi, former President Jiang Zemin and former Premier Zhu Rongji.
Li, 63, is regarded as being close to Xi after serving under him in Li’s native southeastern province of Zhejiang, a center for export-oriented manufacturing and private enterprise. He headed the province’s political and legal affairs department before being made deputy party secretary and holds an MBA from Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
Li’s reputation was dented by a lengthy COVID-19 lockdown of Shanghai earlier this year that confined 25 million people to their homes, severely disrupting the economy and prompting scattered public protests. While district-level officials were punished as a means of placating public anger, Li was not known to have addressed the difficulties of adhering closely to Xi’s hardline “zero-COVID“ policy.
