Xi’s loyalist Politburo

Single file of the power elite: The new Politburo Standing Committee steps out from behind the curtains. Its composition reveals a lot about future policy.

The CP’s power center, the Politburo Standing Committee, is now staffed exclusively by Xi loyalists. The final day was overshadowed by an incident surrounding the 79-year-old former Party leader Hu Jintao: The frail-looking Hu was escorted out of the hall shortly after the start of the meeting – for unknown reasons.

It is the moment everyone has been waiting for. Led by Xi, the seven top cadres step into the Golden Hall of the Great Hall of the People on Sunday morning Beijing time to face the waiting journalists, who had quarantined themselves for two days for this sight. And it immediately becomes clear to the observers: Xi succeeded all the way.

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