Xi tightens grip on power as China unveils new leaders

By Jessie Yeung, CNN

Updated 6:41 a.m. ET, October 23, 2022
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6:36 a.m. ET, October 23, 2022

Our live coverage of China's leadership reveal has ended. Read more about it here:

6:36 a.m. ET, October 23, 2022

Xi Jinping has entered a third term surrounded by loyalists. Here are the key moments from today

From CNN's Simone McCarthy, Nectar Gan, Steven Jiang, Yong Xiong and Wayne Chang

New members of the Politburo Standing Committee at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Sunday.
New members of the Politburo Standing Committee at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Sunday. (Andy Wong/AP)

Chinese leader Xi Jinping has formally stepped into his norm-breaking third term ruling China with an iron grip on power, as he revealed a new leadership team stacked with loyal allies.

Here's what you need to know:

  • The new A-team: Xi announced six men — Li Qiang, Zhao Leji, Wang Huning, Cai Qi, Ding Xuexiang and Li Xi — to stand alongside him as members of the Politburo Standing Committee, China’s top ruling body. They are all staunch Xi loyalists — clearing the path for him to rule with minimal internal discord or opposition.
  • All male Politburo lineup: Xi also revealed the new 24-member Politburo, which for the first time in at least 25 years includes no women – highlighting the stark lack of female representation in the Communist Party's leadership.
  • Officials removed: Two names raised eyebrows for their conspicuous absence. Hu Chunhua, one of China's vice premiers, was once widely viewed as a candidate for top leadership — but the 59-year-old is now no longer listed as a Politburo member. Meanwhile, former Xinjiang party secretary Chen Quanguo is also missing from the Central Committee roster.
  • No clear successors: Standing Committee lineups before the Xi era have included younger members as potential successors for the top leader. But with the youngest member at 60 years old this time, there’s no stand-out name in the mix – a potential sign Xi is not planning to step down anytime soon.
  • Fallout over Hu Jintao: The 79-year-old former leader was unexpectedly led out of the room during yesterday's closing ceremony of the Party Congress, seeming initially reluctant to leave. State-run news agency Xinhua later said on its English-language Twitter — which is blocked in China — that Hu had been removed for "health" reasons, though many experts have voiced doubt. The incident has so far not been reported in state-run Chinese-language media or discussed on Chinese social media, where such conversation is highly restricted.
6:37 a.m. ET, October 23, 2022

Russia's Vladimir Putin congratulates Xi on his third term

From CNN’s Duarte Mendonça in London

Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Beijing on June 8, 2018.
Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Beijing on June 8, 2018. ( Greg Baker/Reuters)

Russian President Vladimir Putin sent his congratulations to Xi Jinping on Sunday after the Chinese leader was confirmed for a norm-breaking third term.

The Kremlin released a statement praising the "comprehensive partnership" between Russia and China. 

“It would be a pleasure for me to carry on our constructive dialogue and close joint work to develop the relations of comprehensive partnership and strategic alliance between our two states,” Putin said, according to the Kremlin statement.

China and Russia have a long-standing relationship, and have forged even closer ties in recent years, with Xi and Putin proclaiming last year that their friendship had "no limits."

China has refused to publicly condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, instead blaming the conflict on NATO and the United States.

6:40 a.m. ET, October 23, 2022

New leadership lineup comes after Hu Jintao, former top leader and Xi's predecessor, was led out of room

Hu Jintao is assisted at his seat during the closing ceremony of the 20th Party Congress in Beijing on October 22.
Hu Jintao is assisted at his seat during the closing ceremony of the 20th Party Congress in Beijing on October 22. (Tingshu Wang/Reuters)

Xi Jinping unveiled his top leadership team today, filling it with close allies from his inner circle — and sidelining those outside his political orbit, including premier Li Keqiang.

But a different figure took the spotlight yesterday, at the end of the 20th Party Congress — former top leader Hu Jintao, Xi's predecessor, who was unexpectedly led out of the room during the closing ceremony.

Hu, 79, was seated directly next to Xi on stage when he was approached by two men. They spoke briefly, with Hu appearing initially reluctant. Hu eventually stood, escorted by the two men from his seat, with one holding his arm.

On his way out, Hu was seen to gesture to Xi and say something to the leader. He then patted Premier Li — an ally and former protege of Hu — on his shoulder. Both Xi and Li appear to have nodded; it was not clear if Xi spoke.

"We really have not seen any kind of disruption to the proceedings like this pretty much ever, as far as I can recall," said Victor Shih, an expert on elite Chinese politics at the University of California San Diego.

The circumstances around his departure were not immediately clear, and CNN was censored on air in China when reporting on Hu’s exit.

The dramatic moment has not been reported in state-run Chinese-language media or discussed on Chinese social media, where such conversation is highly-restricted — but it set off a firestorm of speculation overseas, with some analysts suggesting it could be a power play on Xi's part.

Hu held the role of China’s top leader from 2003 to 2013, presiding over a comparatively more economically open and globally integrated era. Hu oversaw China’s landmark 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, significant infrastructure spending and a decade of double-digit economic growth.

Hu was never as powerful as Xi is now — owing in part to the balancing influence of multiple party factions and party elders, including his predecessor Jiang Zemin. Hu was associated with a faction connected to the Communist Youth League, a grouping whose influence has diminished considerably during Xi's rule.

State media breaks silence: On Saturday night, China's state-run news agency Xinhua wrote on its English-language Twitter account that Hu "insisted on attending the closing session of the Party's 20th National Congress, despite the fact that he has been taking time to recuperate recently."

"When he was not feeling well during the session, his staff, for his health, accompanied him to a room next to the meeting venue for a rest. Now, he is much better," Xinhua wrote.

Twitter is banned in China. To date, Xinhua has not posted the statement on their website or Chinese-language social media.

And many experts remain doubtful. Shih pointed out after Hu cast his vote for the new lineup of the Central Committee, he had sat down "in a pretty stable manner" — whereas if he'd been feeling ill, staff could have "whisked him away and given him medical care" right after the vote.

"Really, it's very puzzling," Shish said. "But it is a very noteworthy event during the Party Congress."
6:41 a.m. ET, October 23, 2022

Xi could potentially rule for life — but this also brings greater uncertainty as he ages, experts say

Xi Jinping meets the media following the 20th Party Congress in Beijing on Sunday.
Xi Jinping meets the media following the 20th Party Congress in Beijing on Sunday. (Tingshu Wang/Reuters)

Today's unveiling of the Politburo and its smaller Standing Committee — two of the Communist Party's major leadership bodies — sends a clear message about who's ultimately in charge, experts say.

"China is not a democracy, and as we have seen throughout the proceedings at the Party Congress, only one man’s opinion matters," said Victor Shih, an expert on elite Chinese politics at the University of California San Diego.

He pointed to several newly-appointed figures, who are close allies of Xi Jinping despite not having much experience working in the central government.

"These are people who know (Xi) very well, whom he trusts a great deal, and they are chosen for these top-level positions because of that," Shih said. "So their job performance, regardless of what the international media think of it, regardless of even what a lot of Chinese people think of, is really is quite secondary here."

Xi in power, again: Xi formally stepped into his third term in power, breaking with precedent as his grip on power tightens.

"By breaking with the two-term norm ... I think Xi Jinping is setting himself up for a lifetime tenure," said Shih.

He added that though this paves the way for Xi in office in the coming years, it could bring instability later as the 69-year-old leader ages. "We all age, we all get old — the sense of uncertainty is going to build," Shih said. Each time Xi disappears from public view for more than a week or two, "there are going to be all kinds of rumors," as well as market instability, he added.

"This kind of one-man rule, and (having) the entire stability and prosperity of the country depending on one person, over time is going to generate ... a lot of uncertainty," Shih said.

Watch:

2:45 a.m. ET, October 23, 2022

Xi says "China's door to the world will only get wider," as the country withdraws further into isolation

New members of the Politburo Standing Committee arrive at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Sunday.
New members of the Politburo Standing Committee arrive at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Sunday. (Ng Han Guan/AP)

During Xi Jinping's speech at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing today, he attempted to paint a picture of an open China willing to collaborate with the world — in stark contrast to the country's growing isolation in recent years.

"China cannot develop in isolation from the world, and the world also needs China for its development," Xi said, adding that China had rapidly developed its economy and achieved "social stability" due to decades of efforts in "reform and opening up."

"China's door to the world will only get wider," he said. "We will stay committed to comprehensively deepening reform and opening up, promoting high-quality development, and creating more opportunities for the world through our own development."

Covid isolation: But whether that pledge will be carried out in reality remains to be seen, with China having closed to the world throughout the pandemic.

China shut its borders in early 2020 to keep out the virus, and they remain largely shut today even as much of the world adapts to live with Covid. Reflecting the country's inward turn, Xi himself didn't leave the mainland for almost 900 days — until he paid a visit to Hong Kong, a Chinese special administrative region.

And with Xi defending zero-Covid during the 20th Party Congress last Sunday, saying it had "protected people's lives," it seems the policy is here to stay.

Insular mentality: But this isolation is also reflected in parts of the country’s national psyche — a broader shift that has been years in the making.

Since taking office in late 2012, Xi has repeatedly warned against the “infiltration” of Western values such as democracy, press freedom and judicial independence. He has clamped down on foreign NGOs, churches, as well as Western textbooks — all seen as vehicles for undue foreign influence.

That has fueled a growing strand of narrow-minded nationalism, which casts suspicion on any foreign ties and views feminism, the LGBTQ movement, and even environmentalism as stooges of Western influence designed to undermine China.

Read more here:

2:29 a.m. ET, October 23, 2022

Analysis: China is facing a host of challenges — including the zero-Covid trap

From CNN's Selina Wang

A Evergrande Group Royal Peak residential development, photographed in Beijing on July 29.
A Evergrande Group Royal Peak residential development, photographed in Beijing on July 29. (Stringer/Bloomberg/Getty Images)

In recent history, no country has modernized as rapidly as China. The Communist Party claims its leadership helped lift hundreds of millions out of poverty, turning backwater villages into stunning megacities.

But that growth miracle has slowed. And many longstanding challenges in China’s economy have only been exacerbated by Xi Jinping's policies.

Xi has made it his mission to strengthen the party and its control over business and society. He unleashed a crackdown on the once-vibrant private sector that’s led to mass layoffs. Beijing claims the tougher regulations restrict overly powerful corporations and protect consumers, but the measures have suffocated private businesses, sending chills through the economy and sparking fears about future innovation.

Collapsing housing sector: Beijing started clamping down on easy credit for property firms in 2020, which led to cash crunches and defaults for many developers, including giant conglomerate Evergrande. Housing projects have stalled and desperate homebuyers across the country are refusing to pay mortgages on unfinished homes. Disruptions in the property sector have an outsized impact on China’s broader economy, as it accounts for as much as 30% of the country’s GDP.

The toll of zero-Covid: But during Xi’s leadership, nothing has rocked China’s economy and society as much as zero-Covid. In year three of the pandemic, China has clung to the harsh policy, which relies on mass testing, extensive quarantines and snap lockdowns to stamp out infections at all costs, even as the rest of the world has learned to live with the virus.

The country continues to lock down entire cities over a handful of infections, while sending all positive cases and close contacts to government quarantine facilities. Lining up for Covid tests and scanning a tracking health code to enter any public space have become normalized.

Beijing argues the policy has prevented China from spiraling into a health care disaster like the rest of the world — but zero-Covid is wielded at enormous and growing costs.

Read the full analysis here.

2:11 a.m. ET, October 23, 2022

Hu Chunhua, once tapped to be a potential top leader, has been removed from the Politburo

Hu Chunhua at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on March, 2021.
Hu Chunhua at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on March, 2021. (Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters)

China's new leadership bodies — the 205-member Central Committee, 24-member Politburo, and 7-member Standing Committee — have now all been revealed, with Xi Jinping at the helm surrounded by staunch loyalists.

A few promotions included high-ranking officials that observers had speculated were top contenders ahead of the unveiling. But there are also some shock absences — names that have conspicuously disappeared from the roster as Xi gathered his allies close and sidelined others.

Hu Chunhua, one of China's vice premiers, was once widely viewed as a candidate for top leadership — but the 59-year-old is now no longer listed as a Politburo member.

He was a protege of former Chinese leader Hu Jintao, Xi's predecessor, who was unexpectedly led out of the room on Saturday at the closing ceremony of the 20th Party Congress.

Afterward, state-run news agency Xinhua said on its English-language Twitter — which is blocked in China — that Hu Jintao had been removed for "health" reasons. The incident has not been reported in state-run Chinese-language media or discussed on Chinese social media, where such conversation is highly restricted.

Hu Chunhua is not among Xi's close circle. Despite widespread speculation about his potential ascension in 2017, he was denied a promotion into the Politburo Standing Committee, stalling his rise — and now, he's out of the wider Politburo as well.

Chen Quanguo, the former party secretary of China's far western Xinjiang region, was also missing from the Central Committee roster.

He is among those sanctioned by the US Trump administration for their alleged involvement in human rights abuses in the Xinjiang region, where Uyghur Muslims and other minority groups have been detained and tortured.

In a statement at the time, then-State Secretary Mike Pompeo said that Chen “oversaw extensive abuses in Tibetan areas, using many of the same horrific practices and policies CCP officials currently employ in Xinjiang.”

2:09 a.m. ET, October 23, 2022

Xi Jinping wants China to "win local wars." Russia’s failures in Ukraine show that’s not so easy

Analysis from CNN's Brad Lendon

It has taken just a handful of years for Chinese leader Xi Jinping to make good on his promise of transforming the People’s Liberation Army.

In 2015, three years after he assumed leadership of the Chinese Communist Party, Xi undertook a sweeping project to turn the PLA into a “world-class fighting force” that would be a peer to the US military.

The deadline he set for that milestone was 2049, yet just seven years on and he is already far along the path to realizing his dream.

Massive military: China now boasts the world’s largest navy, with some of the newest and most powerful warships afloat; an air force with stealth fighter jets and a stealth bomber expected soon; and a rocket force bristling with new missiles that give it a reach unmatched in Asia.

But as Russia’s faltering invasion of Ukraine shows, even the largest, most formidable seeming militaries have Achilles heels that can be exploited by smaller, savvier forces.

What should be even more worrying for Xi, as he begins a third term as both party leader and supreme commander of the Chinese military following this week’s 20th Party Congres, is that many analysts see parallels between the problems dogging Moscow in Ukraine and the potential weak spots that remain in the PLA, writes CNN's Brad Lendon.

Read the full analysis here: