Why Chinese Communist Party’s largest elite body now has a lot of new members but not many young ones

Promoting young cadres was not a priority for Communist Party members in Beijing last month when they voted on the membership of its new Central Committee, the largest of the party’s elite ruling bodies.

Only two of the 376 members of the new body were born in the 1970s, making it the oldest Central Committee in three decades. That’s a stark contrast to the Central Committee formed a decade earlier, which was the youngest in half a century and included 25 people born in the 1960s.

The two youngest members of the new body are also non-voting alternate members, whereas the 17th Central Committee formed in 2007 included four full members born in the 1960s.

The 19th Central Committee, whose membership was decided at the party’s five-yearly national congress last month, has 204 full members with voting rights and 172 alternate members who attend meetings and fill vacancies that occur.

A seat on the Central Committee – known as the first rung of China’s leadership ladder – is fiercely contested among officials as it opens the road to key positions in the party, government, military and state-owned enterprises. It is also a prerequisite for further advancement into the party’s decision-making Politburo and its innermost Politburo Standing Committee.