“There is no transparency about what goes on in the top echelons of China’s leadership”
There weren’t supposed to be any surprises at the National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) last week. Xi Jinping was guaranteed to be reappointed as general secretary of the party. The seven-member politburo standing committee (PSC) – the top decision-making body – would be filled predominantly with officials loyal to him. And a number of longstanding officials seen as more reform-minded or moderate would step down as they reached retirement.
That is exactly what transpired, despite some rather unlikely speculation earlier this year that Xi’s plan to break norms and stay on for a third term would face serious opposition. Yet there was one major surprise, when Xi’s predecessor Hu Jintao was escorted out of the hall during the final session, visibly reluctant and unhappy. Xinhua, the official state news agency, later reported that he had been feeling unwell and had left to recuperate, but that did nothing to dampen speculation about what had really happened.
Did Xi deliberately arrange for Hu to be removed as a way to humiliate his predecessor (in an earlier speech, he had offered some fairly blunt comments on where he thought China was going wrong at the time he took over)?
