Xi Jinping becomes more empowered: Li Keqiang and Wang Yang are not in the new leadership line-up as President Xi tightens his grip on power.

Xi Jinping becomes more empowered: Li Keqiang and Wang Yang are not in the new leadership line-up as President Xi tightens his grip on power.

CPC congress: Mr. Li Keqiang, Mr. Wang Yang not in new leadership line-up as President Xi tightens grip on power. October 22, 2022, San José de Costa Rica rafaelvilagut@gmail.com

China's censors blocked CNN while reporting this surprising moment https://youtu.be/1HQ_AVAJlKE Former Chinese leader Mr. Hu Jintao was escorted out of the closing ceremony of Saturday's Communist Party Congress in Beijing.

Four of the current seven supreme leaders ruling China, including Premier Li Keqiang and fourth-ranked Wang Yang, are to retire in a significant reshuffle that will allow President Xi Jinping to surround himself with his allies.

Mr. Li’s and Mr. Wang’s names did not appear in a list of the newly elected 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) on Saturday at the end of a week-long party congress. The new cohort of leaders – 205 full members and 171 alternate members – come from the top rungs of the party, military, and government.

They will on Sunday 23 elect among them the higher power 25-member Politburo and its elite Standing Committee made up of seven men.

They will also elect members of the Central Military Commission (CMC), the country’s military high command, who are also drawn from the same pool.

Neither Mr. Li, who is No. 2 to President Xi in the current Politburo Standing Committee, nor Mr. Wang has reached retirement age. Both are 67.

Third-ranked Li Zhanshu, 72, and seventh-ranked Han Zheng, 68, are also out of the new Central Committee, which means they will fully retire. They had been expected to step down.

An informal retirement norm, better known as the “seven up, eight down” rule, sets the age limit at 67 for old and new members of the Standing Committee and the wider Politburo at the start of a new term. Politicians aged 68 or older are disqualified.

Mr. Wang was hotly tipped to take over Mr. Li as the next premier, but the latter was said to have asked for retirement, citing health reasons.

Central Committee members were voted in on Saturday 22 by around 2,300 delegates attending the once-every-five-years congress, who represent the 96 million members of the CPC.

Delegates also elected all the members of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the party’s anti-corruption watchdog.

Based on the list of newly elected members, Guangdong party chief Li Xi – an ally of Mr. Xi – is the most likely candidate to become the next anti-corruption czar, to be named on Sunday at the new Central Committee’s first meeting. This will also give him a seat on the new Standing Committee.

The retirement of Mr. Li and Mr. Wang is seen as a blow to the Communist Youth League faction, to which the two belong.

Other leaders who will step down include economic czar Mr. Liu He, 70; top diplomat Mr. Yang Jiechi, 72; vice-premier Mr. Sun Chunlan, 72; head of the Communist Party’s organization department Mr. Chen Xi, 69; and former Mr. Xinjiang party chief Mr. Chen Quanguo, 66.

“It’s very rare for any leader to stay in the Politburo for four terms, or 20 years, with the paramount leader being the exception. Mr. Li and Mr. Wang have already been in the Politburo for three terms, so it is difficult for them to stay on,” said Dr. Chen Gang, a senior research fellow at the East Asian Institute in Singapore.

Their departure, along with the retirement of Mr. Li Zhanshu and Mr. Han, gives room to Mr. Xi Jinping to stack the Standing Committee with his allies.

He is expected to secure a rare third term as general secretary of the party, and chairman of the CMC on Sunday. Amendments to the party constitution adopted at the congress on Saturday have also further strengthened his authority.

The Strait Times (Singapore), https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/cpc-congress-li-keqiang-wang-yang-not-in-new-leadership-line-up-as-president-xi-tightens-grip-on-power