China’s new leadership team unveiled

Beijing, Oct 25: China’s new leadership lineup has been revealed. The unveiling of the new lineup marks the climax of the twice-a-decade leadership reshuffle after months-long intense horse trading and power struggles in the lead-up to the 19th party congress, the South China Morning Post reported. According to the report, Li Zhanshu, 67, Xi’s chief of staff, looks set to take over the head of China’s National People’s Congress while vice-premier Wang Yang, 62, is expected to become chairman of the top political advisory body, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. Wang Huning, 62, the top party theorist and director of the Central Policy Research Office, will be in charge of ideology, propaganda and party organisation. Zhao Leji, 60, head of the organisation department and the party’s personnel chief, will replace Wang Qishan to become the new anti-graft tsar, while Han Zheng, 63, the Shanghai party chief, will become the executive vice-premier. The leadership of the powerful Central Military Commission, the body that oversees the military, was also unveiled on Wednesday. General Zhang Youxia, a former director of the commission’s equipment development department and a trusted ally of Xi, was named as the new second vice-chairman. The current second vice-chairman Xu Qiliang was elevated to replace Fan Changlong as the first chairman. The 70-year-old Fan will retire. General Li Zuocheng, 64, a veteran of the 1979 war with Vietnam, will join the commission. The full line-up of the new Politburo and its Standing Committee is: Xi Jinping (Party General Secretary, Standing Committee member), Li Keqiang (Standing Committee member), Li Zhanshu (Standing Committee member), Wang Yang (Standing Committee member), Wang Huning (Standing Committee member), Zhao Leji (Standing Committee member, Central Commission for Discipline Inspection chief), Han Zheng (Standing Committee member), Ding Xuexiang, Wang Chen, Liu He, Xu Qiliang (Central Military Commission Vice-chairman), Sun Chunlan, Li Xi, Li Qiang, Hu Chunhua, Li Hongzhong, Yang Jiechi, Yang Xiaodu, Zhang Youxia (Central Military Commission Vice-chairman), Chen Xi, Chen Quanguo, Chen Miner, Guo Shengkun, Huang Kunming, and Cai Qi. UNI