The party’s leadership is made up of more than 300 officials arranged in a five-level hierarchy. At the top is the general secretary, Xi, who also serves as president and commander-in-chief of the military. Each congress provides a new opportunity to rejig the ranks, reports The Business Standard.
Rule to Break: Retire at Age 68
To secure a third term, Xi must break a rule established two decades ago by outgoing President Jiang Zemin: a retirement age of 68. Although Chinese officials have dismissed the rule as “folklore,” none of the Central Committee’s 961 members appointed since then have crossed that barrier.
Xi, 69, is expected to be the first top leader to breach that rule. Securing party approval to stay on past the age limit will affirm Xi’s status as a historic figure on par with Mao Zedong, who died in power at 82. Even if Xi breaks the retirement rule, that doesn’t automatically mean other aging leaders will also benefit.
Eleven members of the current 25-person Politburo, who are elected from the Central Committee, are expected to age out under the current retirement rule. Whether they stay or go will have big ramifications for who leads the world’s second-biggest economy.
That question will be answered next week when 2,300 delegates, representing almost 97 million Communist Party members, gather in Beijing for the party congress. One of their main jobs will be to elect a new Central Committee — one loyal to Xi. “The new members of the Central Committee will either be his followers or people unaffiliated with any powerful factions,” said Victor Shih, an associate professor at the University of California San Diego who researches elite Chinese politics.