The Chinese Communist Party Congress in Beijing took place as expected with Xi Jinping becoming the President of the nation for a third time. However, in an unprecedented event, the party will not have a single women member in the top positions for the first time in over 25 years.
With Jinping assuming the position of President once again, the seven top posts in the Politburo Standing Committee went to four of his allies. It included two senior leaders who had previously served as secretaries to the government and the rest went to prominent politicians.
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The only remaining woman in the top positions of the Communist Party – Sun Chunlan – retired and the Politburo did not replace her with another woman. The move, that has sparked quite a bit of criticism in China, is something that the new generation has not seen in the recent past.
The other major change that came out of the national congress was the appointment of Li Qiang as the new Premier of China. His predecessor – Li Keqiang – decided to retire at the end of 2023.
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Li, who is currently the head of the Shanghai Communist Party – was the mind behind the tough lockdown which was enforced on the region. While a number of experts criticised his measures, the government were quite pleased with the drop in cases resulting from the restrictions.
“It is all Xi’s people, signalling he wants to rule even beyond a third term,” said Alfed Wu Muluan, a Chinese politics expert at the National University of Singapore told AFP.
