Chinese President Xi Jinping ripped up decades of precedent on Wednesday, unveiling a new leadership team with no apparent successor and raising the possibility he may seek to retain his clench on power.
Chinese President Xi Jinping ripped up decades of precedence on Wednesday, unveiling a new leadership team with no apparent successor and raising the possibility he may seek to retain his grip on power.
Xi led the new lineup — dressed almost identically in black suits — onto a red-carpeted stage in the Great Hall of the People. All five new members of the top-level Politburo Standing Committee, who will join Xi and Premier Li Keqiang, are in their 60s.
The debut occurred in theatrical fashion at the end of a twice-a-decade party congress with a room full of sweaty journalists and an announcer. It follows the decision Tuesday to elevate Xi to the level of Mao Tse-tung, the nation’s founder, by enshrining “Xi Jinping Thought” into the Communist Party constitution.
This step — along with the lack of a clear heir — gives Xi even greater influence over the country’s future and the sweeping, definitive vision he sees for it.
“A new era needs a new look, and even more needs new accomplishments,” he said, when introducing the lineup. They stood behind him to the left, looking stern.
The new members are all longtime politicians, with knowledge of issues such as foreign trade and party ideology. But none is young enough to succeed Xi in five years when his decade tenure ends.
“Xi is prepared to extend his power or influence beyond 2022,” said Yanmei Xie, a China policy analyst for research firm Gavekal Dragonomics in Beijing. “The party has shifted away from an institutionalized power-transition process and vested more power into this one person.”
Deng Xiaoping, who succeeded Mao, sought to avoid the kind of single-handed power Mao used to drag China through a brutal Cultural Revolution. He launched an era of collective leadership that has lasted a quarter century — until, perhaps, now.
The team installed to help Xi usher in a “new era” of ideological purity and international prominence is not only made up of tight allies.
