BEIJING
(Reuters) - China’s Communist Party revealed its new leadership helmed by
President Xi Jinping on Wednesday, breaking with recent precedent by failing to
include a clear successor to the president among the seven-man line-up.
Apart from
Xi, Premier Li Keqiang was the only one to retain his spot amid sweeping
changes on the Politburo Standing Committee, the height of power in the world’s
second-largest economy.
Li Zhanshu,
Wang Yang, Wang Huning, Zhao Leji and Han Zheng were promoted, replacing five
retiring members including anti-corruption chief Wang Qishan, a key Xi ally.
All seven are in their 60s, and for the first time no Standing Committee member
will have been born before the 1949 Communist revolution.
Guangdong
party secretary Hu Chunhua and Chongqing party boss Chen Miner had been
previously seen as prominent contenders to succeed Xi among the party’s
so-called sixth generation of leaders but were not included in the Standing
Committee. Instead, both were named to the wider 25-member Politburo, a rung
below the Standing Committee.
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, as transpired five years later.
A
combination of pictures shows China's new Politburo Standing Committee members
Xi Jinping (C), Wang Yang (top L), Li Keqiang (top C), Han Zheng (top R), Zhao
Leji (bottom L), Li Zhanshu (bottom C) and Wang Huning at the Great Hall of the
People in Beijing, China October 25, 2017. REUTERS/Jason Lee
But Sun
Zhengcai, another sixth-generation contender, was abruptly removed from his post
as Chongqing party secretary in July, signaling the likelihood Xi would delay
naming a successor and adding to speculation that Xi could seek to stay on in
some capacity beyond the end of his second term in 2022.
Li Zhanshu,
who is considered the closest to Xi among those newly promoted, will likely
head China’s largely rubber stamp parliament, analysts and sources have said,
having held a chief-of-staff style role as head of the party’s General Office.
The
parliament position will be formally decided at the annual meeting of
parliament in March.
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