Status: 10/22/2022 10:24 am
The Chinese Communist Party Congress has paved the way for a third term in office for President Xi. Delegates gave their blessing to his continued leadership. A former head of state was surprisingly removed from the podium.
China’s head of state and party leader Xi Jinping further expanded his power at the Communist Party Congress in Beijing. At the conclusion of the party congress, which takes place only every five years, the 2,300 delegates in Beijing anchored his ideology and lasting leadership role even more deeply in the party constitution.
Among them are the so-called Two Provisions and the Two Safeguards. The resolution said that with Xi as the “core of the Central Committee” and through his theories, the party was able to overcome the country’s contradictions and problems. The Party and China are facing a complex situation and severe challenges unparalleled in the world.
break with the norm
The delegates also gave their blessing to the 205 members of the new Central Committee of the Communist Party. The committee directs the work in the party and implements the resolutions of the party congress. Prime Minister Li Keqiang is not among the members – that means he will retire.
The new Central Committee will meet tomorrow to appoint the Politburo and its Standing Committee – the supreme governing body of the Communist Party and thus also of the People’s Republic. Xi is to be confirmed as secretary-general and head of the military commission for a third term.
In doing so, he breaks norms, because after two terms at the head of the party and state, it was actually over. At 69, he also exceeds the party’s internal age limit. This makes him more powerful than any other head of state since long-time dictator Mao Tsetung.
“Xi is his own successor”
“The most important political innovation of this party congress cannot be found on paper: Instead of making room for a younger successor after two terms as Secretary General, Xi is setting himself up as his own successor,” said Katja Drinhausen from the China Institute Merics in Berlin.
“He may find that his third term in power is the hardest yet,” said Richard McGregor of Australia’s Lowy Institute. The well-known US political scientist Francis Fukuyama stated in “The Atlantic” that Xi had created a personalized system in which no one else could get close to him. “One person’s concentration of authority has led to poor decision-making processes.”
Former leader Hu Jintao arrested
The carefully orchestrated week-long session was marred by an incident involving former leader Hu Jintao. Two men led him away in front of the assembled press.
Xi’s predecessor, 79, looked surprised and clearly didn’t want to leave. The chair next to Secretary-General Xi then remained empty. Observers see the action as a demonstration of power by the current and future head of state and party – and as a warning to his opponents within the party.
Hu Jintao belongs to the Communist Youth League camp in the party, which was weakened by Xi. The former head of state stands for the leadership model with representatives from different factions and with age limits, which was intended to prevent a concentration of power as under the founder of the state, Mao Tsetung.
Tailored to own person
Xi has ruled with an iron fist for the past decade, tailoring China and the Communist Party to his liking. Priorities are security, government control of the economy in the name of “shared prosperity,” more assertive diplomacy, a stronger military, and the takeover of democratically governed Taiwan.
Four years ago he abolished presidential term limits, clearing the way for a third five-year term as general secretary of the ruling Communist Party.
With information from Benjamin Eyssel, ARD studio Beijing
New Central Committee: Chinese Communist Party Congress is over
Benjamin Eyssel, ARD Beijing, October 22, 2022 09:09 a.m