Xi Jinping to tighten grip on power with new rules for top policymaking bodies

Name: Xi starts tour of southern China to mark 40th anniversary of Shenzhen special economic zone
Uploaded: 2020-10-13T14:30:15.000Z
Duration: 1 min 38 s
Description: Xi starts tour of southern China to mark 40th anniversary of Shenzhen special economic zone

Draft gives details of Xi’s scope as general secretary of the ruling Communist Party and how the top organs should operate

Observer says it’s part of a long-term project to make regulations on almost every issue, with personal power ‘always embedded’

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The regulation is expected to further elevate Xi Jinping’s status within the Communist Party. Photo: AP

Jun Mai

Published: 10:30pm, 13 Oct 2020Updated: 1:41am, 14 Oct 2020

China’s ruling Communist Party is expected to pass a binding regulation on how its policymaking bodies operate at a plenum later this month, a move that will further strengthen President Xi Jinping’s grip on power.

More than 300 Central Committee members will discuss and approve the regulation at the party’s annual political meeting to be held in Beijing in the last week of October. The committee is in charge of party affairs and passes major party decisions when it meets at least once a year.

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Xi starts tour of southern China to mark 40th anniversary of Shenzhen special economic zone

A draft of the regulation published by state media on Monday gives more details of the scope Xi has as general secretary of the party than previous documents. It also covers how the party’s top decision-making bodies operate – the 25-member Politburo and the seven-member Politburo Standing Committee.

Deng Yuwen, a former deputy editor of Study Times, a newspaper affiliated with the party’s top academy, said the regulation gives Xi more control.

“This regulation has more details of how the Central Committee should work than the Communist Party’s constitution,” Deng said. “It further elevates the status [of Xi] above other Politburo Standing Committee members as the general secretary is more like a convenor under the constitution.”

According to the draft, meetings of the three bodies – the Central Committee, Politburo and Politburo Standing Committee – can be called if more than half of their members are present.