Members of the new Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China. Xi Jinping, centre, and from left to right, Li Xi, Can Qi, Zhao Leji, Li Qiang, Wang Huning, and Ding Xuexiang. October 23, 2022. Credit: Kevin Frayer via Getty Images
By claiming a third term at the 20th Party Congress, Xi Jinping has become China’s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong. Now he will be leader until either he dies or is deposed in a power struggle. With old Party institutions melting away under his watch, Xi may be inaugurating a new period of political uncertainty that is superficially stable, but structurally fragile.
Xi has restored a personalistic dictatorial regime and demolished the collective leadership and intra-party rules that Deng Xiaoping instituted after Mao died. Hu Jintao’s mysterious exit from the Party Congress on Saturday, right after the names of the leaders in the new Central Committee who would be eligible for the Politburo and Standing Committee were announced, dramatized the end of collective leadership. It also hinted at the possibility of future splits between those who favor more sharing of power among Party elites, and those who believe that Xi Jinping’s strongman rule is China’s best hope.
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