Date set for decision day on China’s next top government line-up
The ruling Communist Party elite are meeting later than usual to determine who will put the president’s priorities into action
China’s Communist Party elite will gather in Beijing for three days from Monday to formally endorse decisions on who will lead the country’s next government and other state bodies, state-run news agency Xinhua reported on Saturday.
The meeting will take place a week before the annual parliamentary meetings, which include the formal announcement of the president, premier and other top state and cabinet officials.
A proposal to approve these positions will be reviewed at the meeting, Xinhua said. Some 376 full and alternate members of the party’s Central Committee will also consider a plan to restructure party and government bodies so they can meet the demands of modern governance, it said.
Streamlining these agencies will mean a system is in place to “guarantee the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation”, according to a Politburo statement released after a meeting chaired by President Xi Jinping on Saturday.
It will be the committee’s third full meeting since the members were selected at a party congress in October, when Xi secured his second term as the country’s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong.
Xi has filled the party’s senior leadership with allies and loyalists, and now it is time for him to shake up the top ranks of the central government, which will be crucial to realising his goals in the next five years.
