China's Xi expands powers, promotes allies

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By JOE McDONALD

BEIJING (AP) — President Xi Jinping, China’s most powerful leader in decades, increased his dominance Sunday when he was named to another term as head of the ruling Communist Party in a break with tradition and promoted allies who support his vision of tighter control over society and the struggling economy.

Xi, who took power in 2012, was awarded a third five-year term as general secretary, discarding a custom under which his predecessor left after 10 years. The 69-year-old leader is expected by some to try to stay in power for life.

The party also named a seven-member Standing Committee, its inner circle of power, dominated by Xi allies after Premier Li Keqiang, the No. 2 leader and an advocate of market-style reform and private enterprise, was dropped from the leadership Saturday. That was despite Li being a year younger than the party’s informal retirement age of 68.

“Power will be even more concentrated in the hands of Xi Jinping,” said Jean-Pierre Cabestan, a Chinese politics expert at Hong Kong Baptist University. The new appointees are “all loyal to Xi,” he said. “There is no counterweight or checks and balances in the system at all.”



Chinese President Xi Jinping waves at an event to introduce new members of the Politburo Standing Committee at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Sunday, Oct. 23, 2022. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)


Read more: https://apnews.com/article/xi-jinping-china-beijing-government-and-politics-21fa1812435b563f2532effb4fe5758e?utm_source=homepage&utm_medium=TopNews&utm_campaign=position_04

[IronLionZion]

1. A lot of countries are slipping quickly towards more authoritarianism

it's very disappointing.

[secondwind]

2. And frightening as well...............

[nattyice]

3. He's their newest Emperor.

[OhioTim]

4. They Use Trump

as a template

[Kid Berwyn]

5. Xi is a crook.

From a decade back…

China blocks New York Times Web site after report on leader’s wealth

By William Wan
The Washington Post, October 26, 2012

BEIJING — An explosive story about the massive wealth accumulated by the family of Prime Minister Wen Jiabao prompted the Chinese government to block the Web site of the New York Times early Friday morning, just days before a sensitive, once-in-a-
decade transition of power from Wen and others to a new generation of leaders.

The article says that assets controlled by Wen’s family are worth at least $2.7 billion, a shocking figure even in a country where government corruption is rampant and popular resentment against the elite has increased in recent years. The scandal also complicates the apparent intention of Chinese leaders to tackle corruption as a main issue at the Nov. 8 party congress, a move they have been signaling in the wake of other scandals that have dramatically shaken the party’s core leadership.

This month, the party took the rare step of accusing another prominent leader, Bo Xilai, of alleged massive corruption and wealth, but only as it began the process of purging him. He had a central role in China’s biggest political scandal in the past two decades, which involved the murder of a British businessman.

Snip…

In June, Bloomberg News reported that the extended family of Vice President Xi Jinping, who is poised to take over as president, had amassed $376 million. Government officials, apparently spooked, took the unusual step of not just censoring online discussion of the story but shutting down Chinese access to the Bloomberg site entirely.

The blocking of the New York Times Web site sets back an effort by the company to attract Chinese readers and advertising. This summer, it launched a new Chinese-language Web site, which had the potential of drawing especially on China’s booming luxury industry for revenue. According to Nieman Journalism Lab, the Times made a hefty investment in launching the Chinese edition, hiring hired 30 to 35 new journalists, translators and technologists.

Continues…

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/china-blocks-new-york-times-web-site-after-report-on-leaders-wealth/2012/10/25/a94707a8-1f02-11e2-ba31-3083ca97c314_story.html

Now, Xi’s cemented his tiny hands to China’s Swiss bank accounts book.