CPC Congress: in China, full powers for Xi Jinping

Chinese President Xi Jinping, reappointed for a third term at the end of the 20th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), has surrounded himself with a political bureau composed solely of his close allies. A fracture with his predecessors, which further strengthens his power and makes any opposition almost impossible. Xi Jinping made history on Sunday October 23. Renewed at the head of the Communist Party at the end of its XX Congress, he secured a third term at the head of the country, unheard of since the death of Mao Zedong in 1976. But, above all, the Chinese president emerges of the 20th Congress of the CCP more powerful than ever, surrounded by loyal allies. chart China’s political future for the next five years. Behind him, the six members of the new Standing Committee, the pinnacle of Chinese power. “This committee greatly strengthens the power of Xi Jinping. All the members who compose it are loyal to him, even very loyal”, notes Bilal Tarabey, international columnist for France 24. In protocol order, the title of number 2 goes to Li Qiang, general secretary of the party in Shanghai. According to tradition, the title of Prime Minister should return to him. “It’s quite a symbol,” explains Bilal Tarabey. “It’s rare that someone goes straight from a regional post to prime minister, without first occupying an intermediate post in Beijing.” He has no experience at central government level, unlike almost all former prime ministers. However, Li Qiang is one of the trusted men closest to the Chinese president. But he is also responsible for Shanghai’s containment during the health crisis, responsible for applying the very severe “zero-Covid policy”, while the city’s 25 million inhabitants were experiencing difficulties in supplying food and essential medical care. “A highly contested record, to the point that some Internet users are currently hijacking censorship to express their bitterness at his appointment,” testifies Lou Kisiela, correspondent for France 24 in China. “The message is clear: loyalty to Xi Jinping comes first.” 📍 In Shanghai, bitterness on social networks 🇨🇳 after the appointment of Li Qiang as n•2 of the CCP. He orchestrated the total confinement of the city, the paralysis of the economy for 2 months, with consequences that are still palpable today. Loyalty to Xi Jinping comes first.— Lou Kisiela (@LouKisiela) October 23, 2022 And the three other new members are also part of the Chinese president’s close guard: Ding Xuexiang, his right-hand man, Li Xi, party leader in the Guangdong province and Cai Qi, the party leader in Beijing. At their side, remain Zhao Leji, responsible for the fight against corruption and discipline – a title that hides the policy of eliminating opponents of power – and Wang Huning, Mr. “ideology”. In the immediate future, the exact distribution of the role of each within the permanent committee has not yet been specified. Dissonant voices set aside In parallel, the few dissonant voices have been set aside. Among them, that of former Prime Minister Li Keqiang and the chairman of the Chinese People’s Consultative Conference, Wang Yang. “The two men represented another current of thought within the committee. They embodied a more liberal and more peaceful policy towards the West”, recalls Bilal Tarabey. “It’s a break with the past. Before, the different factions of the party made compromises to divide up the positions. And this guaranteed that the different currents of thought could be expressed”, says Jean-Pierre Cabestan, sinologist at the Asia Center in Paris. “Today, the entire Standing Committee belongs to Xi Jinping and no single figure will be able to limit his power.” inside the Party and to cement its power”, analyzes for its part the Singaporean newspaper, The Strait Times. What “make the opposition almost impossible, any different vision can be interpreted as an attack”. The tone had been set from the closing ceremony of the Congress on Saturday, when former Chinese President Hu Jintao, considered more moderate and more open to the West, was forcibly escorted out of the room where the event was taking place. State media have cited health reasons but the 79-year-old’s apparent reluctance to leave his seat has led to speculation about the real motives behind the move. Especially since at the opening of the congress, Xi Jinping had expressed strong criticism of his predecessor. He had in particular estimated that, during the “Hu era”, currents of erroneous ideas such as the cult of money, the search for pleasure (…) were recurrent. (…).” For some observers, this unexpected exit was thus intended to send a strong political signal to those who would like to oppose the coronation of Xi Jinping. “Given the care taken in the choreography of the Party Congress, this n t is no coincidence that this was able to take place in front of all the Party delegates and the media”, said Henry Gao, professor of law at the Singapore Management University, on Twitter. “Hu Jintao was very unhappy with the composition of the Central Committee,” Willy Lam, a CCP scholar at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, told AFP. I think he must have said something that upset Xi Jinping, maybe a few words of protest. , and that’s why Xi Jinping summoned members of the security to drag him aside. “Absent womenAnother notable fact: the politburo, the Chinese political office, has no women for the first time in 25 years. Sun Chunlan, the only member, retired and no one replaced her. The group now has 24 members, one less than usual. However, there was no shortage of candidates, starting with Shen Yiqin, the only woman to be general secretary of the party of an entire province, that of Guizhou, in southern China. Coming from the Bai ethnic group, a minority, she ticked “several good boxes at once to fill the quotas”, noted the China Project website in early October. Below the politburo, the Central Committee, a kind of parliament with 205 members , also sees the number of women declining.There are now only eleven women, against thirty previously.It must be said that Xi Jinping is not the champion of the women’s cause in politics.He embodies “the very patriarchal approach of society of the CCP”, explained before the Congress Valarie Tan, sinologist at the Mercator Institute for China Studies (Merics) in Berlin. This lack of women in governing bodies has however significant economic and social consequences, assures the specialist, who believes that “one of the root causes of the current demographic crisis in China is this under-representation of women in important positions.”>> XX Congress of the Chinese Communist Party: where are the women?Taiwan as a priorityReinforced nt his power and by making sure of an apparatus won over to his cause, the president hopes to more easily meet the challenges that await him. Because, despite a reinforced power, the leader will have to face many obstacles: an economy in sharp slowdown due to his “zero Covid” policy, a malaise in the middle class, an exacerbated rivalry with the United States, criticisms international human rights… “We are going to witness a return to a fairly harsh socialism, especially on the economic level”, predicts Jean-Pierre Cabestan. While Xi Jinping has, in recent years, focused on consumption and domestic demand to develop the economy, the maintenance of health restrictions in China has undermined this strategy. “Xi Jinping has thus clearly affirmed that the good national economic health will be at the center of activities, and the private economy will become secondary.” “Internationally, China will want to continue its cooperation with other countries on the economic level. , while trying to establish his vision of the world and his ideology”, continues the sinologist. “But the concern is growing especially about Taiwan,” he fears, while the Communist Party has included for the first time in its charter a mention of its “firm opposition” to the independence of the island. Tensions between Beijing and Taipei have sharply increased since the August visit of US number three, Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House of Representatives. Seeing this as an attack on its sovereignty, Beijing then organized its largest military exercises in the process. “With this amendment to the charter, Xi Jinping is again clearly increasing his pressure on the island and making it one of his priorities”, insists Jean-Pierre Cabestan. The renewal of Xi Jinping “can be an element (… ) which increases the risk of armed conflict,” said Shanghai-based analyst Dan Macklin. In the event of a prolonged economic slowdown, the Communist Party could intensify its pressure on Taiwan to strengthen its legitimacy, he explains to AFP. An aging Xi Jinping, surrounded by a team in his pay, also increases “the risk of miscalculation” in decisions, warns the analyst.