Chinese President Xi Jinping has unveiled the new lineup for the Communist Party’s all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee (PBSC), after securing his own leadership for the next five years.
There are five new faces in the seven-member committee, which was announced Wednesday in an elaborate ceremony in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People.
Xi and Premier Li Keqiang were joined by: Li Zhanshu, Wang Yang, Wang Huning, Zhao Leji and Han Zheng.
The announcement follows the end of the Communist Party National Congress, the biggest event in China’s political calendar, which is held every five years.
“Over the past five years we have set out a broad agenda, some tasks have been completed while others need more work,” Xi said after introducing the new committee.
“With decades of hard work, socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era,” he said, in an apparent reference to Xi Jinping Thought, which was enshrined in the party’s constitution on Tuesday, only the second time in history a living Chinese leader has had their authority recognized in this way.
The youngest member of the new committee, Zhao, will be 65 years old in 2022, three years off the unofficial retirement age for top officials.
Analysts had said a failure to promote a younger person to the committee could be an indication Xi intends to break with custom and stay on in power after his second term ends. Xi was 54 when he joined the standing committee in 2007.