Xi set for third term
Xi is widely expected to be unveiled as general secretary on Sunday, shortly after the first meeting of the newly elected Central Committee.
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Daily TribuneXi is widely expected to be unveiled as general secretary on Sunday, shortly after the first meeting of the newly elected Central Committee.
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BEIJING (AFP) — China's five-yearly Communist Party Congress began its closing session Saturday morning, with President Xi Jinping likely to seal an unprecedented third term in power.
The closing ceremony later at Beijing's Great Hall of the People tops off a week of largely rubber-stamp meetings among 2,300 party delegates, who will approve a reshuffle of the party's top leadership likely to have been determined well in advance.
Xi is widely expected to be unveiled as general secretary on Sunday, shortly after the first meeting of the newly elected Central Committee, a 200-member body of the party's most senior officials.
This will allow Xi to sail through to a third term as China's president, due to be announced during the government's annual legislative sessions in March.
Xi previously abolished the presidential two-term limit in 2018, paving the way for him to rule indefinitely.
The weekend will also see the new Central Committee approve a reshuffled 25-member Politburo, as well as a Politburo Standing Committee — China's apex of power — of around seven people, which analysts expect to be stacked with Xi allies.
At Sunday's Congress opening ceremony, Xi delivered a 105-minute "work report" lauding the party's achievements and glossing over domestic problems such as the stalling economy and the damage wrought by his harsh zero-Covid policy.
Heavy on ideological rhetoric and light on policy, a defiant Xi also urged Communist Party members to steel themselves against numerous challenges including a hardening geopolitical climate.
"We must… be ready to withstand high winds, choppy waters and even dangerous storms," he said.
The Congress this week is likely to further cement Xi's position as China's most powerful leader since Mao Zedong, with analysts predicting he is virtually certain to be reappointed for a third term in power.
But some key questions remain unresolved, including whether Xi, 69, will appoint a potential successor to the Politburo Standing Committee and whether a pithier form of his signature political philosophy will be enshrined in the charter of the 96-million-strong party.
