November 15, 2012 -- Updated 0647 GMT (1447 HKT)
From left, Zhang
Gaoli, Liu Yunshan, Zhang Dejiang, Xi Jinping, Li Keqiang, Yu Zhengsheng
and Wang Qishan greet the media at the Great Hall of the People on
November 15. China's ruling Communist Party revealed the new Politburo
Standing Committee after its 18th congress.
Beijing (CNN) -- China on Thursday unveiled the
elite group of leaders who will set the agenda for the country for the
next decade, presenting them to journalists from around the globe after
months of secretive bargaining and abundant speculation.
The seven members of the
committee that sits atop China's political system strode out onto a
stage in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. They were led by Xi Jinping, who takes over from Hu Jintao as head of the Communist Party, which has ruled China for more than 60 years.
Xi is joined on the new
Politburo Standing Committee, the party's top decision-making body, by
Li Keqiang, who is expected to replace Wen Jiabao as premier early next
year.
Xi also succeeded Hu as
head of China's powerful Central Military Commission, which oversees
major national security and military affairs. That makes for a cleaner
transition than in the past two power handovers, when the former party
chiefs held onto the key military role for years afterward, using it to
keep exercising considerable power and influence.
A far cry from the
relentless media campaigns and frequent public appearances of U.S.
presidential candidates, the efforts to determine who ended up in
China's most powerful posts have taken place behind closed doors, part
of a once-in-a-decade leadership transition.
Despite the spectacular
economic and social changes China has undergone in recent times, the
party has maintained a tight grip on power and upheld its obscure
methods for selecting its top leaders.
The consequences of the
leadership handover are significant for the nation's 1.3 billion
citizens, its neighbors in Asia and the United States, which is warily
watching China's economic and military rise.
Standing in front of a
huge landscape painting on Thursday, Xi brought a touch of cordiality to
the start of his speech before a packed room of reporters,
apologetically acknowledging that he and his party colleagues had kept
their audience waiting by appearing later than scheduled.
But he quickly turned to serious matters, warning of the "many severe challenges" that the party faces.
He singled out
corruption, remoteness from the general public, as well as undue
emphasis on formalities and bureaucracy as particular concerns.
The secrecy and
exclusivity of the procedure by which China's top leaders are selected,
involving maneuvering and deal-making among senior party figures, leaves
many of the country's citizens feeling detached from the process.
"Many ordinary people
don't feel so excited or joyful about what's happening," said Lijia
Zhang, a Beijing-based author. "People say, 'Oh, it's the party's
business, nothing to do with us -- and we do not have a say in selecting
the leader or the policy.' "
What kind of changes Xi,
59, and those joining him on the party's most powerful committee are
likely to usher in over the coming years remains shrouded in mystery.
"Xi Jinping is in many
ways an unknown commodity," said Mike Chinoy, a former CNN correspondent
and now a senior fellow at the University of Southern California's
U.S.-China Institute. "He's risen to the top of the Chinese system by
being very careful not to disclose what he really thinks."
The son of one of Mao
Zedong's top lieutenants, Xi is considered a "princeling" because of his
family's place in the Communist Party aristocracy. He is also believed
to be close to the Chinese military.
Married to a popular
folk singer for the People's Liberation Army, he has climbed through the
party hierarchy, at one point holding the top job in the eastern
metropolis of Shanghai. He is expected to inherit the title of president
from Hu, 69, early next year.
Some observers have
expressed hope that the next decade could bring a degree of political
reform as Chinese leaders seek to bolster their legitimacy, which has
been eroded by widespread corruption and the dramatic scandal this year
involving the former senior party official Bo Xilai.
But many analysts are
skeptical about the willingness of leaders to adopt significant changes,
noting the concentration of power and money at the top of the party.
The new set of leaders appears set to uphold the status quo, according
to Willy Lam, a history professor at the Chinese University of Hong
Kong.
"By and large, we have a
conservative team," Lam said following the announcement of the new
Standing Committee. "We can expect no substantial or meaningful movement
toward political reform."
The new leaders are
likely to be "in favor of staying the course, maintaining political
stability and defusing challenges to the party's authority," he said.
The new Standing
Committee is more streamlined than its previous incarnation, dropping
for nine members to seven. The smaller committee may help bring about
greater unity and efficiency at the top of the party, some experts say.
Besides Xi and Li, the
members of the elite committee are Zhang Dejiang, Yu Zhengsheng, Liu
Yunshan, Wang Qishan and Zhang Gaoli.
The new lineup shows
that Jiang Zemin, the 86-year-old former party chief who preceded Hu,
still maintains heavy clout in the Communist hierarchy, said Cheng Li,
director of research at the John L. Thornton Center at the Brookings
Institution.
The composition of the
committee is "not a surprise but a disappointment," he said, adding that
it was dominated by people loyal to Jiang.
He said some Chinese
people would be disappointed about the decision not to include Liu
Yuanchao and Wang Yang, senior officials who he described as "strong
advocates for political reform."
The Standing Committee
also remains a men's club with no woman among its new members. Since the
standing committee's creation in 1949, no woman has ever held a
position on it.
Despite speculation that
Liu Yandong, the lone female member of the wider Politburo, might be
tapped for the elite group, she was not among the seven members who
marched across the stage Thursday.
Her age may have been a disadvantage in her candidacy, according to the Hoover Institution, which is based at Stanford University. Liu was born in 1945 and has been a member of the Politburo since 2007.
Women lag in political representation in China.
Only 2.2% of working women were in charge of the state offices, party
organizations and other enterprises or institutions, according to the Third Survey on Chinese Women's Social Status, a national survey released last year.
CNN's Jaime FlorCruz reported from Beijing,
and Jethro Mullen from Hong Kong. Steven Jiang and Stan Grant in
Beijing, and Kevin Voigt, Hilary Whiteman, Madison Park and Elizabeth
Yuan in Hong Kong contributed to this report.
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