BEIJING (HPD) — China’s Premier Li Keqiang, the country’s second most powerful person and a champion of economic reforms, is one of four of seven members of the Communist Party’s powerful Politburo Standing Committee who have not will repeat appointment.
Their names were not included in the list published on Saturday of the 205 members of the new Central Committee of the Communist Party, which means that they cannot serve on the Standing Committee.
The other discards are the head of the match in Shanghai, Han Zheng; the head of the formation’s advisory body, Wang Yang, and Li Zhanshu, an old ally of the president, Xi Jinping, who heads the National People’s Congress, a mainly ceremonial entity.
The new Central Committee was approved at the last session of the congress on Saturday, where an amendment to the party’s constitution was given the green light that will further increase Xi’s leadership position. The assembly also set the agenda for the next five years.
The text of the amendment was not immediately released. Before its approval, an announcer read the rationale behind it, repeatedly mentioning Xi and his achievements in strengthening the military and the economy, and bolstering the party’s authority.
In a brief statement during the closing ceremony, the president indicated that the revision “establishes clear requirements to maintain and strengthen the general leadership of the party.”
The previous congress, held in 2017, elevated Xi’s status by enshrining his ideas — known as “Xi Jinping Thought” — in his letter.
Foreign media were unable to attend the first part of the meeting, presumably when the voting of the nearly 2,000 delegates, all wearing masks due to China’s strict “zero COVID” policy, took place in the Great Hall of the People, in the center of Beijing.
As part of the security setup for the conference, police officers were stationed along the main streets and neighborhood watch workers, dressed in bright red, stationed at regular intervals to keep an eye out for any potential incidents.
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Associated Press writer Kanis Leung in Hong Kong contributed to this report.