The first plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), announcing the third term in office of Xi Jinping, will open on the morning of the 23rd at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
At the first plenary session, in which 205 members of the Central Committee, etc., elected at the 20th National Congress (party congress) the day before, participate, members of the Politburo are elected, and the Politburo Standing Member, the supreme leadership, is confirmed.
Currently, there are 7 standing members and 25 members of the Politburo.
However, the consensus of experts is that the Standing Committee and Politburo members have already been appointed after consultation from the upper levels of power, and that the first round of the meeting is actually a process of ratification.
The new standing committee will attend a press conference held at the Dongdaecheong in the Great Hall of the People around noon local time.
The order of appearance on the podium is the order of power of the party leadership.
At this meeting, President Xi is expected to reveal his goals for the third and fifth years of his administration to the inside and outside the country.
The list of the 20th Central Committee includes three members: President Xi, Wang Huning, secretary of the Central Secretariat, and Zhao Leji, secretary of the Central Discipline Inspection Committee. As four people, including the Chairman of the Standing Committee and Deputy Prime Minister Han Jeong, were not included, four out of the seven current supreme leadership have resigned.
Since members of the Politburo are selected from among the members of the Central Committee, and the members of the Standing Committee are selected by the members of the Politburo, they must be included in the list of members of the Central Committee in order to rise to the top leadership.
Accordingly, if the current seven-member standing committee system is maintained, it is expected that four of the current leadership will be replaced.
Candidates for the Standing Committee include Shanghai City Party Secretary Li Chang, Guangdong Province Party Secretary Li Shi, Central Pangong Office Director Ding Xuexiang, Chongqing Party Secretary Chen Min-eru, a group close to President Xi, and Vice Premier Hu Chun-hua, who has been selected as the next generation of the Communist Youth Corps (Gongcheng Corps). This is being considered as a candidate.
All five of them were on the list of Central Committee members.
Among them, Secretary Li Xi was elected as the next member of the Central Discipline Inspection Committee of the Communist Party of China at the closing ceremony of the Party Congress, effectively making a reservation for entering the next supreme leadership.
As Zhao Liji's successor, he is expected to enter the highest leadership position as the sixth secretary of the Discipline Inspection Committee.
In the first plenary session, the positions of the remaining members of the Standing Committee, except for the general secretary of the Party and the president of the Central Military Commission, the secretary of the Party Central Secretariat, and the secretary of the Central Discipline Inspection Committee, are not normally disclosed, but the positions of the standing members can be inferred from the ranking of the party that is revealed on that day.
Xi Jinping's 3rd term leadership is expected to discuss the main tasks of the new leadership at the first Politburo meeting soon after finishing the first round.
The new leadership will carry out personnel appointments for key positions in the party, government, and military until the National People's Congress (NPC) is held in March next year.