By KEN MORITSUGU, Associated Press
BEIJING (AP) — China’s ruling Communist Party reaffirmed President Xi Jinping’s continued dominance in running the nation Saturday, sooner or later ahead of giving him a widely expected third five-year term as leader.
A celebration congress held every five years effectively removed 4 of the seven members of senior leadership — including Premier Li Keqiang, the nation’s No. 2 official and a proponent of market-oriented reforms, that are in contrast to Xi’s moves to expand state control over the economy.
The weeklong congress, which wrapped up Saturday, also wrote his major policy initiatives on the economy and the military into the party’s structure, in addition to his push to rebuild and strengthen the party’s position by declaring it absolutely central to China’s development and future.
The congress was being watched for signs of any weakening of or challenge to Xi’s position, but none was apparent. The removal of Li, while not unexpected, signaled his continuing tight hold on power on the planet’s second-largest economy.
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“The congress calls on all party members to amass a deep understanding of the decisive significance of building comrade Xi Jinping’s core position on the party Central Committee and within the party as a complete and establishing the guiding role of Xi Jinping Thought,” said a resolution on the structure approved at Saturday’s closing session.
“Xi Jinping Thought” refers to his ideology, which was enshrined within the party charter on the previous congress in 2017.
Xi, in short closing remarks, said the revision to the structure “sets out clear requirements for upholding and strengthening the party’s overall leadership.”
Li was amongst 4 of the seven members of the party’s all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee who were missing from the party’s recent 205-member Central Committee, which was formally elected on the closing session.
Which means they will not be reappointed to the Standing Committee in a leadership shuffle that will likely be unveiled Sunday. Xi is widely expected to retain the highest spot, getting a 3rd term as general secretary.
The three others who were dropped were Shanghai party chief Han Zheng, party advisory body head Wang Yang, and Li Zhanshu, a longtime Xi ally and the pinnacle of the largely ceremonial National People’s Congress.
Li Keqiang will remain as premier for about six more months until a recent slate of presidency ministers is called.
If he had remained on the Standing Committee, it might have indicated some possible pushback inside the leadership against Xi, particularly on economic policy. Li had already been largely sidelined, though, as Xi has taken control of most facets of presidency.
The roughly 2,000 delegates to the party congress — wearing blue surgical masks under China’s strict “zero-COVID” policy — met within the Great Hall of the People in central Beijing.
Most media, including all of the foreign journalists, weren’t allowed into the primary a part of the meeting when the voting was happening.
Former Chinese President Hu Jintao, Xi’s predecessor as party leader, was helped off the stage just a little greater than two hours into the three.5-hour meeting, sparking speculation about his health.
Hu, 79, spoke briefly with Xi, whom he had been sitting next to within the front row, before walking off with an assistant holding him by the arm. There was no official comment. Jiang Zemin, 96, who was president before Hu, didn’t appear at this congress.
Only 11 women were among the many 205 people named to the Central Committee, or about 5% of the overall. Members of minority groups made up 4%. Those percentages were roughly similar to within the last Central Committee.
Police were stationed along major roads, with bright-red-clad neighborhood watch employees at regular intervals in between, to maintain an eye fixed out for any potential disruptions.
A person caught authorities by surprise last week by unfurling banners from an overpass in Beijing that called for Xi’s removal and attacked his government’s tough pandemic restrictions.
A report read by Xi on the opening session of the congress every week ago showed a determination to remain on the present path within the face of domestic and international challenges.
Xi has emerged during his first decade in power as one in all China’s strongest leaders in modern times, rivaling Mao Zedong, who founded the communist state in 1949 and led the country for a quarter-century.
An expected third five-year term as party leader would break an unofficial two-term limit that was instituted to try to forestall the excesses of Mao’s one-person rule, notably the tumultuous 1966-76 Cultural Revolution, under which Xi suffered as a youth.
Xi has put loyalists in key positions and brought personal charge of policy working groups. In contrast, factions inside the party discussed ideas internally under his two immediate predecessors, Hu Jintao and Jiang Zemin, said Ho-fung Hung, a professor of political economy at Johns Hopkins University.
“Straight away, you don’t really see quite a lot of internal party debates about these different policies and there is simply one voice there,” he said.
Xi has emphasized the central role of the Communist Party in China’s development and future, expanding state control over society in addition to the economy. In his remarks, he said the party, which marked its a centesimal anniversary last 12 months, continues to be in its prime.
“The Communist Party of China is once more embarking on a recent journey on which it is going to face recent tests,” he said.
The congress concluded by playing the communist anthem, “The Internationale.”
Associated Press author Kanis Leung in Hong Kong contributed to this report.
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