Press Trust of India
Beijing
Chinese President Xi Jinping has further consolidated his power with many of his own associates making it to the Central Committee.
Several names, especially that of Premier Li, 67; National People’s Congress chairman Li Zhanshu, 72; Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference chairman Wang Yang, 67; and Vice-Premier Han Zheng, 68, were conspicuously missing from the Central Committee list.
They are all part of the outgoing seven-member Standing Committee headed by Xi.
Both Li and Wang are regarded as moderates. Li, who steered the Chinese economy for the past ten years, has already announced his decision to quit as Premier though he is one year short of the official retirement age of 68 set by the party.
Among the other notables, Foreign Minister and State Councillor Wang Yi was elected to the Central Committee while former foreign minister Yang Jiechi was dropped.
After the election of the Standing Committee on Sunday, Xi along with the new team is due to appear before the media who are kept in a closed loop COVID quarantine in a
hotel here.
Xi, who is completing a 10-year tenure this year, will be the first Chinese leader after party founder Mao Zedong to continue in power, ending three decades of the rule followed by his predecessors to retire after two five-year tenures.
Observers say the new tenure will put him on course to continue in power for life like Mao.
The Congress during its closing session also passed several key resolutions, including an amendment to its Constitution to grant more powers to Xi.
Ahead of the 20th Congress, Beijing witnessed rare public protests with banners hung on overpasses of major thoroughfares, protesting against Xi’s unpopular zero-COVID policy and authoritarian rule.
After the appearance of the banners, security was further tightened in Beijing with the deployment of police on most of the city’s bridges and underpasses.
China is expected to boost its nuclear arsenal after President Xi Jinping’s remarks at the key Congress of the ruling Communist Party here for the first time that Beijing will establish strong strategic deterrence, experts have said.
“We will establish a strong system of strategic deterrence,” Xi, who is widely expected to be endorsed for a record third five-year term by the Congress of the CPC, told its opening session on October 16.
In the 63-page report, Xi, who also heads the Central Military Commission (CMC) – the overall high command of the two million-strong People’s Liberation Army (PLA) – devoted a special section to the military titled Achieving the Central Goal of the PLA and Further Modernising National Defence and Military.
He also called for accelerated development of unmanned, intelligent combat capabilities, promotion of coordinated development and application of the network information system.
There was no mention of the concept of strategic deterrence in Xi’s last party Congress report in 2017 or in his historical resolution last year.
But the country’s 14th five-year plan report released last year emphasised the need to “build a high-standard strategic deterrence”, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported.
Analysts said Xi’s mention indicated China would improve its nuclear deterrence capability amid its increasing rivalry with the US, which is a major nuclear power.
Song Zhongping, a former People’s Liberation Army instructor, said the statement meant China would “strengthen its development of strategic nuclear forces” to safeguard its national security.