China sets date to unveil Communist Party’s new leadership line-up
Closed-door gathering decides who will determine the candidates for a seat on one of the ruling party’s highest governing bodies
The new leadership of China’s ruling Communist Party will finally be unveiled on Wednesday next week, with the party announcing its twice-a-decade national congress will conclude on October 24.
As the run-up to the congress entered the final stage on Tuesday, delegates met behind closed doors for the most important gathering of the preparations – to select the presidium, a body convened temporarily to drive the agenda of the week-long meeting.
In a show of hands, 2,280 party delegates approved 243 members of the party elite to dictate the procedure and even decide how many days the congress will run.
But the real power brokers within the presidium are the 42 members of its standing committee, the congress’s core body with the final say on who will be named among the 200 or so members of the Central Committee, the party’s governing body for the next five years.
Landing a seat on the Central Committee is a prerequisite for progression to the party’s highest ranks – the Politburo and the innermost Politburo Standing Committee.