The 20th Party Congress in October cemented state and party leader Xi Jinping’s status as the absolute center of power. For ten years, Xi has been concentrating the control of politics in his hands behind the scenes of the party. To this end, starting in 2012, he established a network of so-called Leading Small Groups (LSG/领导小组) and Central Commissions (中央委员会) in the Communist Party for a wide range of policy areas, such as the economy, the environment or innovation. For most of them, Xi also made himself head.