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New Chinese premier pick could mean ‘more continuity than change’ in economic policies, says analyst
- Attention to opaque selection process of Beijing’s top leadership has intensified as Xi solidifies grip and US-China ties fray
- Choice of premier thought to signal Chinese leader’s ‘primary needs or his political policy considerations’
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Kinling Loin Washington
The choice of China’s new premier could indicate “more continuity than change” in Beijing’s economic policies when the country’s next leadership line-up is unveiled later this month, according to a leading US-based expert on the matter.
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Speaking in Washington on Tuesday, Cheng Li of the Brookings Institution offered his analysis of the 20th Party Congress slated to take place in Beijing on October 16.
President Xi Jinping is widely expected to secure an unprecedented third term at the most significant political gathering in decades of China’s Communist Party. But the composition of the rest of the nation’s top leadership body – now a seven-member Standing Committee – has been the subject of extensive speculation.
Many overseas China experts, including Li, have cautioned that trying to divine the line-up every five years is difficult. Yet they believed attention had intensified over the opaque selection process for the next batch of top Chinese officials due to Xi’s status as the paramount party leader and a deterioration in US-China relations.
“Personnel is policy,” Li said. “Whoever becomes premier actually signals Xi Jinping’s primary needs or his political policy considerations.”
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