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Xi Jinping wins third term as 20th Party Congress ends with vow to create ‘new and greater miracles’ for China

CHINESE President Xi Jinping was elected to serve a third term as general secretary of the ruling Communist Party as its 20th congress closed at the weekend.

Congress closed with Mr Xi enjoining delegates to be “fully confident and capable of creating new and even greater miracles” as China moves towards “full-process democracy” and promotion of a “human community with a shared future” as an alternative to the current US-dominated world economy.

It passed constitutional amendments clarifying the commitment to a “basic socialist economic system, with public ownership as the mainstay and diverse forms of ownership developing together” and one evidently aimed at raising the share of labour as opposed to profit in GDP, stating that “distribution according to work is the mainstay while multiple forms of distribution exist alongside it.”

The party published a list of individuals on the new politburo and politburo standing committee today, indicating the likely holders of top government offices. 

Mr Xi’s re-election had been expected since China abolished term limits for the presidency in 2018.

There were no term limits for party leader, but since 1993 the party’s general secretary has usually also been elected president of the country, a position chosen by the National People’s Congress rather than the party itself. 

Mr Xi was confirmed for another term as chair of the Central Military Commission which controls the armed forces: China’s People’s Liberation Army is formally subordinate to the Communist Party and not the state.

Prime Minister Li Keqiang was not elected to the new central committee, meaning he is unlikely to be reappointed PM though he will retain the role until a new government is formed, probably in around six months. 

Shanghai party leader Li Qiang has been tipped as his successor, a move interpreted as a sign of support for the zero-Covid policy that has allowed China to avoid the mass mortality rates of Western countries.

The retirement of Sun Chunlan, the only woman on the politburo, leaves the body without any women on it for the first time in 25 years, a move likely to attract significant criticism.

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