Xi Jinping has eliminated key rivals from China’s leadership and consolidated his grip on the country on the final day of a Communist party meeting at which former president Hu Jintao was led away unexpectedly from the main stage. Hu’s departure was a rare moment of unscripted drama in what is usually carefully choreographed political theatre.
The closing session of the 20th congress of the Chinese Communist party (CCP) ended a weekend of triumph for Xi that makes him China’s most powerful ruler since Mao Zedong. He has swept away the last norms of a political order built since Mao’s death to prevent a return to the worst excesses of rule by a single autocrat.
On Saturday, it became clear that Xi had shuffled premier Li Keqiang and reformer Wang Yang into retirement, so he could pack the politburo standing committee – the heart of government, which had for decades ruled collectively – with loyalists. On Sunday, Xi’s third term as head of the CCP, and therefore leader of China, will be officially announced, after years of speculation. He will get a third term as president early next year.
The week-long meeting was planned with precision and paranoia, and Xi emphasised party unity throughout. But the desire to control the party’s public image made the sudden and apparently unwilling departure of Hu, in front of the world’s media, particularly surprising.
The 79-year-old seemed confused and reluctant to leave his seat on stage at the Great Hall of the People when he was approached by an aide or official, who whispered in his ear and tried to lift him from his seat. At one point Hu tried to pick up Xi’s notes, which lay on the table between them. Xi reached out to hold the papers down. Hu was then escorted from the stage, sparking speculation over whether the departure arose from health problems, or was power politics played out for a CCP or international audience.
Whatever the reason, it carried symbolic weight. The other living former leader, Jiang Zemin, is now 96 and had not appeared at the congress.
Xi has used the gathering to cement his position in the CCP and bolster his personality cult by making his writing the “core” of modern party ideology. Once Hu had been escorted out, Xi was pre-eminent on the stage, as he now is in Chinese politics. The congress, the most important gathering of China’s five-year political cycle, brings 2,400 delegates from all over the country together to rubber-stamp decisions taken by the party elite.
Under the old norms, Xi would have been stepping down as leader this week after 10 years at the helm. Instead he abolished term limits on the presidency, is packing the government with allies, and could potentially become leader for life.
Any remaining senior officials who oppose Xi are unlikely to risk speaking out against him now, analysts say. In several of his speeches, the president talked about China having to navigate an increasingly hostile world. In his closing address, Xi told delegates: “Dare to struggle, dare to win, bury your heads and work hard. Be determined to keep forging ahead.”
His vision for China suggests more repression at home, more state interference in the economy – even though this has hampered growth – and aggression abroad.
Changes to the CCP’s constitution approved on Saturday make Xi’s writings – the snappily named Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era – an underpinning for party ideology, with Xi himself at the “core” of the party.
A list of delegates appointed to the 205-member central committee also revealed that some of the most senior rivals to Xi – who had links to other factions in the party and their own powerbase – had been forced into retirement.
The 25-member politburo, and its all-powerful standing committee, are drawn from central committee members. Officials cannot join the powerful ruling organisations if they are not on the central committee. Those missing included premier Li Keqiang and Wang Yang, who heads the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. Li had been expected to retire from the premiership next March, but there has been speculation he would stay in the CCP leadership with a less high-profile role.
Wang, a pro-reform politician with a relatively liberal image and rich regional experience, was previously seen by analysts as a likely candidate for the next premiership.
“A central committee, politburo and standing committee all dominated by Xi would mean a significant loss of checks and balances,” said Willy Lam, senior fellow at the Jamestown Foundation, a thinktank based in Washington. “Xi’s policy of putting ideology and national security over economic development will continue for the coming five or even 10 years, as he is eager to rule until the 22nd party congress in 2032, when he will be 79.”
Other constitutional amendments significantly toughened China’s stance on Taiwan. The CCP charter previously listed Taiwan alongside Hong Kong and Macau as a place with which it hoped to “build solidarity”. It now only swears to “resolutely oppose and constrain Taiwan independence”. “Beijing is signalling that it is digging its heels deeper into the ground on no room for compromise on the Taiwan issue,” said Sung Wen-ti, a political scientist at the Australian National University.
