Red Brotherhood: Meet The 7 People Who Are Going To Lead China And The Communist Party

President Xi Jinping is China's and arguably world's most powerful man. Mao, a man who he is often compared to, seldom had periods with such unrestricted power.

In terms of concentration of power, a more apt comparison would be Joesph Stalin, who vanished into his datcha during the Operation Barbarossa, only so that his party members grovelled to him to come back and take charge as the system could not function without him.

In the 20th Party Congress, Xi increased his dominance not just when he became the leader for a 3rd time but when he promoted people who are personally loyal to him, people who share his worldview.

Exclusion of Li Keqiang and head of top advisory body Wang Yang is an sign that individuals from other factions no longer will have a seat at the top table.

The four newcomers in the body are all personally loyal to Xi. Most of them can be called technocrats. Dictators often surround themselves with technocrats because they know these people will never challenge the leader. Promotion of technocrats is the number one trick up in the sleeves of every dictator or any individual who is paranoid about being removed from power.

1. Xi Jinping, the helmsman

Xi laid down the conditions for his continuation in power with the elimination of term limits. Even before then, Xi had sidelined rivals and accumulated ultimate authority by assuming the leadership of working groups operating outside the ministries that oversee everything from national security to economic policy. His third term is being hailed as a return to one-man rule after a period of more collegial decision-making.

Xi is what is known as a "princeling," the son of one of Mao Zedong's comrades in the founding of the People's Republic who despite falling out of favor returned to implement important economic reforms. Xi Jinping, meanwhile, worked his way through a series of provincial postings until being appointed vice president and then party leader in 2012, and state president in 2013.

Xi, who has a law degree from Beijing's prestigious Tsinghua University, has consolidated power through a sweeping anti-corruption campaign, reasserted the role of the state sector in the economy, expanded the military and led ruthlessly devoured Xinjiang and Hong Kong to complete their integration with the mainland and end any possibilities to disintegration.

2. Li Qiang, the Shanghai chief

Li Qiang has been party secretary of Shanghai, China’s largest city and financial hub, since 2017 and was parachuted into the Politburo Standing Committee, possibly as a future premier. The Shanghai post is one of China's most important and was previously held by Xi, former President Jiang Zemin and former Premier Zhu Rongji.

Li, 63, is regarded as being close to Xi after serving under him in Li's native southeastern province of Zhejiang, a center for export-oriented manufacturing and private enterprise. He headed the province's political and legal affairs department before being made deputy party secretary and holds an MBA from Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

Li's reputation was dented by a lengthy Covid lockdown of Shanghai earlier this year that confined 25 million people to their homes, severely disrupting the economy and prompting scattered public protests. While district-level officials were punished as a means of placating public anger, Li was not known to have addressed the difficulties of adhering closely to Xi's hardline "zero-Covid" policy. His elevation to the Politburo Standing Committee appears to indicate that loyalty to Xi trumps public popularity and competence in governance when it comes to political advancement.

3. Zhao Leji, the discipline chief

Since 2017, Zhao Leji has run the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the party's much-feared body for policing corruption and other malfeasance. That has made him a key figure in Xi’s campaign to bring party members inline that has at times been characterized as a vehicle for eliminating opponents and instilling loyalty. He is now in line to head the National People’s Congress, the largely ceremonial legislature that meets in full session just once a year and whose deliberations are mainly carried out behind closed doors by its smaller standing committee.

Zhao, 65, is seen by some analysts as part of Xi’s "Shaanxi Gang" of figures with family ties to the western province of Shaanxi. Before moving to Beijing, Zhao was party secretary for Shaanxi and, before that, for the remote western province of Qinghai on the Tibetan plateau, where he was born and spent his early career.

4. Wang Huning, the political theorist

Longtime party political theorist Wang Huning, 62, has been a member of the Politburo Standing Committee since 2017 and moves up from fifth position, reflecting his status as one of Xi’s most important advisers. The fourth spot usually goes to the head of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the advisory group to the NPC that also oversees non-Communist groupings, religious organizations and minority groups.

Wang, who has a background in academia, has largely been in charge of party ideology as an advisor to a succession of leaders. Unusual for those at the pinnacle of power, he has no experience as a regional governor, party leader or cabinet minister.

Since 2017, he has served as director of the Central Leading Small Group for Comprehensively Deepening Reform, a relatively obscure body that helps enforce Xi's policies. He was formerly dean of the prestigious Fudan University law school in Shanghai and a professor of international politics. Wang advocates a strong, centralized Chinese state to resist foreign influence.

5. Cai Qi, Beijing party leader

Cai Qi is another newcomer to the Politburo Standing Committee, a talented politician who has a long-established relationship with Xi. As with Xi, Cai worked in the coastal provinces of Fujian and Zhejiang, arriving in Beijing in 2016 first as mayor before being promoted to the top spot of party secretary the next year.

His time in office has been more varied and challenging than some of his predecessors. He brought the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics in on time and with relatively little disruption and has carried out Xi's "zero-COVID" strategy without causing the sort of massive upheaval seen in Shanghai.

Cai, 66, is a Fujian native and considered one of the party's leading intellectuals, having earned a doctorate in political economy from Fujian Normal University, while also proving himself a competent manager.

6. Ding Xuexiang, a confidant of Xi

As head of the General Office since 2017, Ding Xuexiang holds one of the most important bureaucratic positions in the party, with sweeping control over information and access to officials. That implies that Xi puts a high degree of trust in him and Ding is often among the few officials attending sensitive meetings alongside the general secretary. That has earned him the sobriquets "Xi's alter ego" and "Xi's chief of staff."

Ding, 60, joined the Politburo in 2017 and has held a variety of posts within the party rather than in government administration. Like Wang Huning, he has never been a governor, provincial party secretary or minister.

7. Li Xi, head of Guangdong, China's industrial powerhouse

Li Xi's elevation to the Politburo Standing Committee appears to come in recognition of his success in promoting integration between Guangdong, with its technology center of Shenzhen, and international finance hub Hong Kong.

Li, 66, has also been named to succeed Zhao Leji as head of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, whose activities Xi is bound to take a close interest in. Li’s father was an architect of Shenzhen’s success, which may have endeared him to Xi despite their having no obvious close working relationship.

Li also has the special distinction of having been party secretary of Yan'an, where the party founded its headquarters at the end of the famed Long March to escape Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist forces. The caves carved from the loess hills where Mao Zedong and other party leaders road out World War II have since become a pilgrimage site for party faithful. He later rose to be deputy Shanghai party secretary and then party secretary of the northeastern rust belt province of Liaoning.