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In a lengthy report, China News partially reveals how the top 300 Chinese Central Committee leaders were selected, whose names were released at the closing of the 20th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) this weekend. According to the official agency, Xi Jinping personally participated in the selection of the candidates.
By Stéphane Lagarde, RFI Beijing Correspondent
This selection of the president’s men began at the end of 2020, according to Xinhua. As party general secretary, Xi Jinping personally chaired the meeting of the “Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee for Special Investigation” in March 2021, which set up the cadre inspection group.
Loyalty to the “two establishments”
He also gave instructions on the selection process and criteria, which obviously included loyalty to the head of state and the “two establishments” principle. The theory established by the landmark 2021 party resolution aims to “establish Comrade Xi Jinping’s status as the core of the party central committee and the entire party” and “establish Xi Jinping’s thought leadership role on the Chinese-style socialism for the new era”.
That is, respect for the head of state as the “nucleus” of the party and following up on his ideas. The candidates, according to Xinhua quoted by the South China Morning Post, also had to be able to “fight” against Western sanctions and safeguard national security. Finally, the integrity of the candidates was checked. “Pay attention to the behavior of spouses, children and their spouses, and senior officials in business,” said the guidelines collected by the China News Agency. Corruption usually comes through family members.
This long process has led to the renewal of half of the political bureau. All four new members of the seven-member Standing Committee at the apex of Chinese power are loyal to the president. Some of them worked directly with him when Xi Jinping was general secretary of the wealthy eastern province of Zhejiang.
‘New Zhejiang Army’
“Xi Jinping was the party secretary in Zhejiang province and in that position he was very involved in party affairs, government affairs, but also military affairs,” says Gao Zhikai, deputy director of the Chinese think tank Center for China and China. Globalization (CCG). As political commissar, he doubled the strength of the People’s Army garrison in Zhejiang, adds the political scientist. “In fact, he managed the province in all its aspects, which allowed him to make many connections. He met with chiefs of province, prefectural officials, mayors, etc. And he reached out to people who weren’t in the province, qualified people he had met, worked with. So it’s not surprising at all,” he stresses.
It is a team of loyalists to the president, which some have dubbed the “new army of Zhejiang”. With Li Qiang, secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in Shanghai, who has experience in two important provinces (Zhejiang and Jiangsu), as well as leading the Chinese economic capital, which was confined for almost three months in the spring of 2022. But he lacks political depth and, in any case, has no experience as a deputy prime minister in the central government. He is a loyal future prime minister, therefore, who in five months should take a backseat to the head of state.
