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China’s Xi Jinping briefs Communist Party inner circle in countdown to landmark national congress
- Central Committee members given an overview of changes to be ushered in at five-yearly gathering
- Meeting is the clearest sign that all the key decisions on personnel and party charter revisions have been completed
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Amber Wangin Beijing
China’s twice-a-decade leadership reshuffle has entered the final stage of preparation with hundreds of senior Communist Party officials gathering in Beijing on Sunday for their final briefing before the national congress.
At the start of the so-called seventh plenum, President Xi Jinping briefed all of the roughly 370 full and alternate members of the Central Committee – the party’s inner circle of power – on the work report he will deliver when the congress gets under way next weekend.
Wang Huning, the ideology tsar and Xi’s colleague in the seven-member Politburo Standing Committee, also explained to the Central Committee members the plan to revise the party’s charter, a revision that is expected to further elevate Xi’s position in the party and consolidate his policy legacy.
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The seventh plenum of the Central Committee is the last major gathering of the top elite before the all-important party congress, which is expected to confirm an unprecedented third term for Xi as the party’s paramount leader as well as introduce sweeping changes at the top. The president is going to use the occasion to change his major supporting cast and build a new team for the next five years.
05:51
Explainer: What is the Chinese Communist Party’s 20th national congress?
Explainer: What is the Chinese Communist Party’s 20th national congress?
All the decisions are made behind closed doors and the process to prepare for the changes started months ago.
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