Exclusive | Signs of Chinese President Xi Jinping delegating more to hand-picked deputies at start of third term

Xi has chaired fewer gatherings at home and cut back on international meetings
The leader could be feeling more confident entrusting others with major responsibilities, observers say

China’s Communist Party

Vanessa Caiin Shanghai

Published: 6:00am, 21 Aug 2023

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Chinese leader Xi Jinping appears to be delegating more responsibilities to his chosen deputies, with fewer reported appearances at top-level meetings in the first stage of his unprecedented third term.

While Chinese politics is opaque, meetings are the main platform for the leader to voice specific goals and policy points, reflecting how deeply involved he is in those areas.

According to publicly available information, Xi had chaired 38 domestic meetings between the end of the Communist Party’s 20th national congress in October – the start of his third five-year term as the party’s leader – and the annual summer break that ended last week.

The total was fewer than the 59 he chaired five years earlier and the 50 meetings he directly oversaw at the start of his first term after taking over from predecessor Hu Jintao.

While the Covid-19 pandemic may have been a contributing factor overall, all zero-Covid restrictions were abandoned after the “two sessions”, the annual legislative gatherings, in March, when he installed allies in all key government positions.

Since then, Xi has presided over 19 meetings on domestic affairs. He chaired 26 meetings in the same period five years ago, and 22 a decade ago.

For example, Xi left it to He Weidong, Politburo member and Central Military Commission vice-chairman, to oversee a two-day meeting on military party affairs in July. Xi attended the same gathering in person in 2018.

Instead, Xi hosted a reception for former US state secretary Henry Kissinger. Sources told the Post that Kissinger’s itinerary in China was decided wholly by Beijing and an overlap could have been avoided easily if Xi decided to attend the military meeting.

Xi also did not attend the Boao Forum for Asia in late March, despite doing so in 2013 and 2018. This time, Premier Li Qiang, whom he hand-picked to take over from Li Keqiang, presided and gave an opening speech.

In addition, Xi has made fewer appearances at international meetings, attending just 31 such gatherings – including three virtual ones – since March. That compares with the 38 he attended five years ago and the 43 a decade ago.

Despite his scaled-back presence, his deputies and state outlets still describe him as “personally in command” of almost all key policy areas, including economic growth and recent flood relief efforts.

One area where the president does appear to be spending more time is on the road throughout the country.

He has spent 22 days on inspection tours since March, visiting the provinces of Guangdong, Hebei, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Jiangsu and Sichuan. That is well above the 13 days in 2018 and the 15 days in 2013.

Such trips have traditionally been a way for the top leader to gather first-hand information and connect with people in the area.

Analysts say the pattern may show that Xi is more confident and relaxed after his bigger-than-expected victory at the national congress, when he screened and decided all key positions.

Dali Yang, a political scientist at the University of Chicago, said Xi’s fewer appearances could not be explained by scheduling clashes.

“The schedule could always be changed to suit him. Scheduling is rarely an issue because they can always be adjusted for his purposes,” he said.

Yang added that in Xi’s first two terms, the Chinese leader seemed to be eager to show up at meetings to leave his mark on key issues.

“Now he seems to prefer working on things behind closed doors … I guess he’s also become more comfortable now that his authority has been firmly established.”

And with the promotion of allies into the Politburo Standing Committee, the president “can afford to delegate and just give his instructions”, Yang said.

Another meeting Xi attended in 2018 but chose not to go to this year was one last month on cybersecurity. Chief of staff Cai Qi and Vice-Premier Ding Xuexiang – both known for their loyalty to the president – turned up instead.

Yang said it was clear that Xi felt more comfortable now to send someone else whom he regarded as his deputy to certain meetings.

Nis Grünberg, a China analyst with the Berlin-based think tank Mercator Institute for China Studies, said Xi now had a team that he chose himself.

“It’s very well thinkable that he now feels confident that he has trusted attendance in these important positions so that he can let loose a little bit and do his supervising from a back-seat position more than he did before,” Grünberg said.