Xi Jinping elected as the New General Secretary of the Communist Party of China

The Communist Party of China (CPC) on 15 November 2012 declared Xi Jinping as the new General Secretary of the Party’s seven-member Politburo standing committee. The 59 years old, Xi Jinping is the son of the former politburo and vice premier. Xi’s selection as the new leader, the Communist Party of China has marked the end of Hu Jintao’s ten year term as the General Secretary of the Party, but he will continue as the President till March 2013, the month when the Chinese Parliament would meet.

Li Keqiang, the second-ranked member of the Politburo standing committee would take over as Premier in March 2013 after Wen Jiabao will step down from his position.

The size of the inner circle of elites has been reduced from nine to seven by the Communist Party of China. This step of reducing the members in the elite circle was done to ensure efficiency in policy and decision making by the top body of the nation.  The other five members of the elite circle are Zhang Dejiang as the Chongqing Party Secretary, Yu Zhengsheng as the Shanghai Party Secretary, Liu Yunshan as a senior propaganda official, Wang Qishan as the Vice Premier in charge of economic affairs and Zhang Gaoli as the Party Secretary in Tianjin.

The once in a five year meet of the party’s National Congress concluded at the Great Hall of the People on 14th November 2012. A total of 2300 delegates casted there secret ballots to choose the members of the 18th Central Committee, the 376 member policy making body.

A new PBSC has also been created that includes four princelings out of the seven leaders. Princeling means the family of any of the former leaders. The newly framed PBSC would be functional for the next five years till 2017 and after this Xi and Li would only continue in the office and rest of the PBSC members would step down from their posts.