Why is retirement beckoning for 11 members of the Communist Party of China’s top decision-making body?
- Unofficial retirement age has been 68, but President Xi Jinping, now 69, is set to remain top leader
- Ahead of party’s national congress, attention has turned to likelihood of successor being anointed
Fading out gradually is seldom an option for top Chinese leaders.
They appear on prime-time news every night. Then, when the day of retirement comes, they suddenly vanish, rarely making public appearances or comments. Little is known about how they spend their time.
The biggest mystery is how retirement decisions are made. For those who sit on the Politburo – the top echelon of the ruling Communist Party – the only guideline, in place since the party’s first orderly power transition in 2002, remains the unwritten rule of retiring at the age of 68. It was established gradually after decades of political turmoil to rejuvenate the party and ensure a stable transition of leadership at the top.
The 20th party congress, starting on October 16, will produce the first exception to that rule when 69-year-old President Xi Jinping stays on for a third term as the party’s top leader, the first to do so since the death of Mao Zedong in 1976.
The big question now is whether any of Xi’s 24 Politburo colleagues will benefit from a similar exemption.
Eleven other Politburo members will have reached the unofficial retirement age. Two of them are members of the seven-man Politburo Standing Committee, the pinnacle of the party’s power structure, which is led by Xi.