The work of the XX National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, which began on 16 October last, ended in Beijing. Xi Jinping chaired the concluding session of the work in the Great Hall of the People. The official Xinhua agency reports. The new Central Committee and the new Central Commission for the inspection of the discipline have been chosen. In addition, amendments to the party constitution approved.
According to CNN, the name of Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang is not on the list of the leaders of the Chinese Communist Party, he is not among the members of the new Central Committee, 205 members plus 171 alternates. This means, the broadcaster specifies, that 67-year-old Li is destined to retire from any role in the Party. There is not even, according to CNN, the name of Wang Yang, the same age as the premier.
In the list, highlights the South China Morning Post which writes of “major shock at the top”, there are no names of four of the seven members of the Politburo Standing Committee: those of 72-year-old Li Zhanshu and 68-year-old Vice Premier Han Zheng, as well as those of Li and Wang. It means, the SCMP points out, that “they will retire”, with Li and Wang who are not yet 68 years old so far considered the ‘limit’ for top positions. And, underlines the newspaper, “by sending the four veterans into retirement”, the 69-year-old “Xi opens more positions at the top for the promotion of young leaders chosen by him”.
Also according to CNN, which refers to images and videos of the meeting, the former Chinese president Hu Jintao, 79, was taken out of the room during the works: he was sitting next to Xi when he was approached by two men with whom he spoke briefly and was then escorted out.
Hu was apparently dismissed by two clerks, against his will, from the stage on which he was next to 69-year-old Xi, reports the Dpa agency, specifying that everything happened shortly after the arrival of the international media and shortly before the delegates vote the amendments to the party’s constitution, to reflect even more Xi’s “ideology” and sanction his role as leader.
Hu handed Xi the post of general secretary in 2012 after two terms. He supports the old model of “collective” leadership with representatives of different factions and limits of age and mandate.
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