Defence, the economy and Taiwan were among the issues addressed by China’s supreme leader as the CPPCC concluded.
The annual National People’s Congress (NCP) of China’s ruling Communist Party (CCP) and its dual track advisory body the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) concluded on Monday, handing the nation’s supreme leader Xi Jinping an unprecedented third term as president.
But this news, flagged five years ago in any case, was the least of it. Xi’s real power stems from his roles as secretary-general of the CCP, and as chairman of the Chinese Military Commission that controls the People’s Liberation Army. He was given both roles for unprecedented third terms at October’s quinquennial party congress.
As Xi has concentrated power in his own hands and his now dominant faction inside the CCP, his influence reverberated across this year’s meeting, highlighted by the cadres who dominated a near-clean sweep of new cabinet ministers and other senior government roles. This changing of the guard is also determined every five years, five months after the 25 new party Politburo leaders installed in last October have had time to find their feet.
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