China’s Xi secures third term
China’s leader, Xi Jinping, has secured an unprecedented third term cementing his place as the country’s most powerful ruler since Mao Zedong.
Xi on Sunday introduced a new Politburo Standing Committee stacked with loyalists including Shanghai Communist Party chief Li Qiang.
Qiang is next in line to become premier when Li Keqiang retires in March.
The unveiling of the Standing Committee comes a day after the close of the Communist Party’s 20th Congress, where amendments were added to the party charter cementing the core status of Xi and the guiding role of his political thought within the party.
The ascension of Li Qiang, 63, to the number two spot, speaks to the importance of ties to Xi.
As Shanghai party chief, Li was a lightning rod for some of the public ire that made it past censors over the city’s grinding two-month COVID-19 lockdown earlier this year.
Other members of the seven-man Standing Committee are Zhao Leji and Wang Huning, who return from the previous committee, and newcomers Cai Qi, Ding Xuexiang and Li Xi. Li Qiang is also new to the Standing Committee.
All are seen by analysts to have close allegiance to Xi, the son of a Communist Party revolutionary who has taken China in a more authoritarian direction since rising to power in 2012.
Richard McGregor, senior fellow for East Asia at the Lowy Institute think tank in Sydney, said the result was a resounding victory for Xi.
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“All of his rivals, potential and real, have been forced out of the Politburo Standing Committee and Xi loyalists took their place. The new Politburo is an emphatic statement of Xi’s dominance over the party.” McGregor said.
Congratulatory messages
Russia’s president Vladimir Putin congratulated Xi, saying he looked forward to further developing a “comprehensive partnership” between their two countries.
“The results of the Party Congress fully confirm your high political authority, as well as the unity of the party you lead,” Putin told Xi, according to the Kremlin’s website.
North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un also sent a congratulatory letter to Xi, state news agency KCNA reported.
Xi laid the groundwork to rule beyond a decade when he eliminated the two-term limit on the presidency in 2018.
His term as president is likely to be renewed at the annual parliamentary session in March, where the next premier will also be officially named.
“Xi’s full control means his team will be fully responsible for any policy mistake,” said Yang Zhang, assistant professor at American University’s School of International Service in Washington.
“His autocracy may provoke stronger international pushback from the U.S.-led Western countries. All of these scenarios will make his third and likely fourth terms not as easy as expected,” he said.
Zainab Sa’id
