Xi Jinping announces third term in power and new top team

The Chinese Communist Party has finally unveiled the men who will rule China for the next five years.

They are: Li Qiang, Zhao Leji, Wang Huning, Cai Qi, Ding Xuexiang and Li Xi

Effectively handpicked by President Xi Jinping, they are all new to the top team apart from Zhao Leji and Wang Huning. Most, if not all, are seen as Xi loyalists.

The Politburo Standing Committee is China's equivalent of the presidential cabinet. Getting to the top often requires not only a stellar political track record, but also deft manoeuvring of internal rivalries.

Here's our guide to each member.

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Japan, Australia and India make up the other members of the Quad strategic grouping with the US. How do they relate to Xi's China?

Japan: There are powerful voices that are pro-engagement with Beijing. But there are also the hawks, the right-wing anti-communists, the apologists for Japan’s war time brutalising of China. Xi has helped silence the former and embolden the latter.

Japan’s economic concerns are also front of mind - oil and gas imports mainly come from the South China Sea, where Xi has aggressively expanded China’s claims. And Tokyo is also closely watching Taiwan with which is has business ties.

This summer Mr Kishida ripped up Japan’s decades old defence policy of spending 1% of GDP and leaning on America. Japan plans to double defence spending in the next five years.

Australia: While there’s still a stand-off, diplomatic ties are thawing under Australia’s new government with both nations’ defence and foreign ministers meeting this year.

However Beijing still wields tariffs on over a dozen Australian imports and continues to detain two Australian citizens Beijing’s moves on Australia’s neighbours – signing a security pact with the Solomon Islands in April - also set off alarm bells.

India: A bloody border clash between troops in 2020 could have been the final blow to the famous “bromance” between Xi and Narendra Modi, who had met 18 times since the latter came to power.

But the two most populous nations in the world have avoided any major clashes since then; trade has continued and they have collaborated at summits. Border instability however remains a threat.

Tens of millions of Chinese people watched live streams of the Congress on state media accounts – but the comment sections were disabled.

On Weibo, China’s version of Twitter, only official media were allowed to post the news about the new Politburo members. The comments underneath those posts were heavily censored, leaving only a few comments singing the new leadership's praises.

And a search for the phrase “We are finished” only shows results from before today.

However, on overseas social media platforms, Chinese users have been much more critical.

"Li Qiang worked so badly during the Shanghai lockdown, why is he the premier?" another user said. Many residents complained about not being able to get enough food or access medical care when restrictions were in place.

"These people have set an example to the civil servants in our country: how important it is to bet on the right side” another user wrote.

North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un sent a congratulatory letter to Xi Jinping on his reselection as China's leader, state news agency KCNA reported on Sunday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has sent a congratulatory message to Xi on his third term, says the Kremlin.

Putin told Xi he looked forward to further developing the "comprehensive relationship" between the two countries.

The allies last met at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Kazakhstan where they held a one-on-one meeting reaffirming their connections.

Back in February the two countries declared a friendship with "no limits" and "no forbidden areas of cooperation" - shortly before Russia invaded Ukraine.

• Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping: An increasingly unequal relationship

North Korea: Xi and Kim Jong-un are your classic frenemies. As China’s rivalry with the US rachets up, it appears Mr Xi has made the decision to keep North Korea afloat. The country provides him with a necessary buffer against South Korea and the nearly 30,000 US troops that are stationed there.

Meanwhile, Kim Jong-un will bristle at having to rely so much on a single country, but he has little choice. His missile tests just ahead of Xi’s congress are a reminder to the Chinese leader he can’t be bossed around.

South Korea: The worse relations between China and the US get, the more complicated South Korea’s relationship with China becomes. It has always leaned on both powers, relying on its long-time ally the US for security and China for its wealth. Current President Yoon Suk-yeol has made it clear he favours his relationship with the US and is looking for ways to reduce economic reliance on China.

For now, though, President Yoon wants to preserve an amicable relationship, last month extending an open invite to Xi to visit Seoul.

Nowhere has Xi Jinping’s more assertive foreign policy had a greater impact than in South-East Asia – China’s backyard, strategically.

Over the past decade, China’s occupation and military development of reef islands in the South China Sea has brought it into direct conflict with other claimants. Attempts by Asean - a group of ten member states in South East Asia - to get China to agree to a code of conduct in the disputed areas have gone nowhere.

China is now so important economically, and so powerful militarily, that few dare confront it openly.

It has effectively destroyed Asean unity by picking off smaller states, notably Laos and Cambodia, which are now so dependent on Chinese largesse they are more or less client states.

Meanwhile countries in the region have become disenchanted with the US, seen as an unreliable partner that is too preoccupied with human rights and democracy.

Asean will continue to engage other powers as much as possible, as a counterweight to China.

But all Asean states, to varying degrees, now accept that China will be the dominant power in this region, unwilling to make concessions where its own interests are at stake.

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The BBC has been speaking to China watchers for their reactions to what we've just seen in Beijing - here's what some of them are saying:

Victor Shih, University of California San Diego, US: "Not only are all Standing Committee members in Xi’s faction, he made that happen without sticking to any apparent age norms or even revising them. He is behaving like a leader without any constraints to his power."

Wen-Ti Sung, Australian National University, Taiwan: "The performance indicators that matter above all in Xi's new era is political loyalty, also known as 'political math' or zhengzhizhang.

"We see that in today's new Politburo Standing Committee line-up: consisted entirely of Xi's proteges and staunch allies.

"He felt no need to assign a spot to an alternative faction, which shows his priority is projecting dominance over magnanimity, when he is facing international pushback."

Neil Thomas, Eurasia Group: "Cai Qi's appointment to the Politburo Standing Committee shows that Xi prizes political loyalty above experience and expertise. Cai was not even among the Communist Party's top 370 leaders before the last party congress in 2017. Now he is the fifth most-powerful person in China."

China is one of the very few things that unites American politicians.

There is bipartisan agreement that Beijing is an increasingly dangerous rival with sharply opposing interests and values.

The Biden administration has toned down the rhetoric of the previous Trump administration, but still sees China as its greatest geopolitical challenge. Most recently, President Joe Biden has taken steps to bolster America’s technology power and block China’s.

He has also expanded ties with Taipei and said three times that the US would fight to defend Taiwan, an apparent departure from Washington’s policy of “strategic ambiguity”.

Increasingly security analysts see Taiwan as a potential trigger for Sino-American conflict. Biden has held virtual meetings with Xi and - now he is confirmed to be staying in power - they may meet in person at the G20 summit in Bali next month.

But much of Biden’s China policy has been focused on shoring up alliances - in the Asia Pacific as well as with the Quad grouping of India, Australia and Japan - to counter Beijing.

Firstly, and most obviously, Xi Jinping is still in charge and will now remain so for as long as he likes, or until some unknown political upheaval in the future removes him.

Nobody seriously expected that the result of this congress could be anything but a continuation of Mr Xi as “the core” of the Communist Party.

What’s more, his new team is completely stacked with Xi loyalists. Nobody with even the slightest hint of a different perspective to him has been included.

In a way, the most extraordinary appointment is making Li Qiang Premier, the country’s No 2 leader, and therefore the one to manage China’s economy.

By placing the person in charge of Shanghai’s disastrous lockdown (with its significant food shortages for 10s of millions of people) in charge of economic planning, this is sending a signal that loyalty to Xi Jinping trumps ability.

For all its other faults, China’s Communist Party had prided itself on being a meritocracy, but this appointment would seems to fly in the face of that.

What’s worse, it will appear to some that General Secretary Xi actually doesn’t have a solid understanding of economic activity and what is required to achieve it. Or at least he doesn’t see it as a priority.

For him, party discipline and nationalist support for the country with him charge comes first and everything else a distant second.

Despite the enormous damage that zero-Covid is inflicting on people’s livelihoods, the reinforcement of an unwavering commitment to this policy, with no clear way out, would seem to confirm this.

Also, yet again, there are no women on the seven-man committee at the top of Chinese power. There has never been a woman on this committee and Xi Jinping has not broken with this. The only exception was Madame Mao during the Gang of Four period but that position was not official.

This will come as a disappointment to many, but not as a surprise.

As expected, it's been announced that Xi will also continue as Chairman of the Central Military Commission - meaning he's the commander in charge of China's People's Liberation Army.

That means Xi is again the party secretary, military commander and will almost certainly also be the president of China (a head of state title that just needs technical confirmation at a legislature vote early next year).

The press conference is over and the full list of the 24-member politburo - from which the standing committee is drawn - has also been released.

There are no women at all on the new politburo.

Sun Chunlan - a vice premier of the State Council with decades of experience - had been the sole woman on the last committed but at age 72 has to retire.

As such there had been talk of a few female contenders who might have inherited her spot.

However none have been elevated. The result reflects the strongly patriarchal nature of the Chinese Communist Party and Chinese society more broadly.

"This is a very sad and shocking arrangement," Prof Yang Zhang of American University in Washington told the BBC.

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Here's a closer look at the faces of the new Standing Committee.

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Li Qiang: It's kind of amazing that Xi has put the Shanghai Party chief in charge of China’s economy as the new Premier and number two leader.

He was in charge of the debacle when Shanghai was locked down and they couldn’t feed tens of millions of people. His appointment will be seen as loyalty to Xi Jinping being much more important than competence.

Cai Qi: A Beijing Party Secretary, who is a very open and loud supporter of Xi Jinping.

Ding Xuexiang: A close aide who has accompanied Xi Jinping on all his trips this year.

Li Xi: A Party Secretary in Guangdong who has also had strong ties with Xi. He was once sent to Liaoning to take over and punish those who were rigging GDP figures in the north-eastern province.

Zhao Leji and Wang Huning were re-elected, having been on the last Politburo Standing Committee.

After announcing his third term, Xi addressed the media to introduce his new leadership team.

The speech also offered an important clue about the direction in which Xi might take China - there has been growing fear that the country is closing off from the world economy.

But Xi said, "China cannot develop without the world, and the world also needs China".

"After more than 40 years of unflagging efforts towards reform and opening up, we have created two miracles - rapid economic development and long-term social stability."

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As Xi Jinping announced his third term in power to China and the world, the streets of the capital remained quiet. It's a clear day in Beijing - smog has given way to a blue sky and a cool breeze.

The lanes around the famous Tiananmen Square are closed - an road around it, Chang’an avenue, is unusually quiet. Traffic can still pass but cyclists and pedestrians are being diverted away from the main entrance.

The square is historic both as the place where the first communist-era leader Mao Zedong announced the founding of the People's Republic of China and where the military cracked down on hundreds of thousands of pro-democracy protesters in 1989

On Sunday, there were multiple checkpoints for anyone heading towards the venue.

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ReutersCopyright: Reuters

Analysts had predicted that Li Qiang might step out behind Xi - in the number two role as the new premier.

The 63-year-old was the Shanghai party chief in charge of the city's two-month lockdown earlier this year and he is a long-time loyalist to Xi, having previously worked as a chief of staff to Xi earlier in his career.

But his elevation to the role of Premier is a surprise if you look at his resume - he has never served in the State Council and he's skipped a few rungs on the ladder.

“Li Qiang will become the first official who is directly promoted from a province or municipality to be premier without any working experience at the centre,” Professor Yang Zhang of American University earlier told the BBC.

“Except for Premier Zhou Enlai, Li will also be the only premier who has not served as vice premier.”

Without his own established base of power and authority, Li will also have to rely on Xi's authority to lead the State Council.

The former premier Li Keqiang was seen as a more moderate voice and often the only counter to Xi on the Standing Committee.

Prof Yang said Li's promotion shows a significant restructuring of power in Chinese politics - Xi retaining core control.