Other top Chinese leaders bring loyalty to Xi and experience

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Six men sit alongside Chinese leader Xi Jinping on the ruling Communist Party’s all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee, running top portfolios from propaganda to fighting corruption.

All are party veterans with close personal and professional ties to Xi, China’s most powerful figure in decades.

Their roles are expected to come into greater focus during the ongoing session of the National People’s Congress, China’s ceremonial legislature.

The backgrounds of the six show the continued “prominence of politics in Xi Jinping’s vision for China’s governance,” said Neil Thomas, a fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis.

Some details about the standing committee members in order of their party rank:

LI QIANG

Perhaps the closest official to Xi, li qiang He is widely expected to take over as prime minister, nominally in charge of the cabinet and caretaker of the economy. Li is best known for ruthlessly imposing a brutal “COVID zero” lockdown on Shanghai last spring as party chief of the Chinese financial hub, proving his loyalty to Xi in the face of complaints from residents about his lack of access to food and care. medical. and basic services.

Li, 63, met Xi during the future president’s tenure as head of Li’s native Zhejiang, a relatively wealthy southeastern province now known as a technology and manufacturing powerhouse.

ZHAO LEJI

A holdover from the former Politburo Standing Committee, Zhao Leji earned Xi’s trust as head of the party’s anti-corruption watchdog, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, and runs an anti-corruption campaign that has frozen all possible opposition to the leader.

Zhao, 65, is expected to serve as chairman of the National People’s Congress and its standing committee that handles most of the actual legislative work.

WANG HUNING

Another returnee from the previous standing committee, Wang Huning has an academic background, having been a professor of international politics at Shanghai’s Fudan University and a senior adviser to two of Xi’s predecessors. Unusual for a senior official, Wang, 67, has never held a position at the local or central government level.

Wang is known for writing books critical of Western politics and society, and is expected to be appointed head of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, the NPC’s advisory body which, in coordination with the party’s United Front Department, works to build Xi’s influence and image. abroad.

QI CAI

As the capital’s leader since 2017, Cai Qi oversaw the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics amid the COVID-19 pandemic, which the match celebrated as a victory. Cai, 67, also oversaw the forced eviction of thousands of migrant workers from blighted urban neighborhoods and kept COVID cases relatively low in Beijing without enacting the tough measures seen in Shanghai and elsewhere.

Cai, who has a doctorate in economics, also entered Xi’s political orbit on the Zhejiang political scene. An early adopter of Chinese social media, Cai is also among the few senior officials to have visited Taiwan, and he praised the island’s ubiquitous convenience stores in a 2012 post for the Caixin magazine website. He is expected to be in charge of propaganda and messages.

XUEXIANG DING

As director of the party’s General Office since 2017, Ding Xuexiang has effectively served as Xi’s chief of staff, especially present on state visits and meetings with foreign leaders. Like Wang, Ding has never held a government position, but is at the center of party affairs just below the Politburo.

At just 60, Ding’s career took off after he was appointed as Xi’s secretary during his brief tenure as party leader in Shanghai. He is expected to be appointed first deputy prime minister in charge of overseeing administrative affairs.

LI XI

Before his appointment to the standing committee, Li Xi, 66, headed Guangdong province, one of China’s wealthiest regions and the base of its vast manufacturing sector. He previously served as party secretary of Mao Zedong’s famous revolutionary base in Yan’an and became an early pioneer in what is known as “red tourism,” promoting sites devoted to party history before its seizure of power in 1949.

A close confidante of Xi, Li has already been appointed to replace Zhao as head of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.

SHARE: