Xi Allies Fill China’s Top Jobs in Move Toward One-Man Rule
- Shanghai boss Li Qiang, former Xi aide, set to become premier
- Clean break from collective leadership of recent decades
Xi Jinping at the end of the closing session of the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party on Oct. 22.
BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Xi Jinping filled China’s most powerful bodies with close allies while securing a precedent-breaking third term, breaking from the collective leadership model that underpinned the nation’s rise to become the world’s second-biggest economy.
Xi, 69, installed six trusted associates alongside him on the Politburo’s supreme Standing Committee on Sunday, putting his former chief of staff, Li Qiang, in line to become the country’s premier. Those associated with other camps failed to secure any positions of power, with Vice Premier Hu Chunhua kept off the broader 24-member Politburo altogether.