The inner workings of the Chinese Communist Party are often hard to decipher, but the core organizational structure has not changed much in recent years.
On Saturday, the roughly 2,300 delegates who attended the past week’s twice-a-decade party congress elected around 200 full members to the Central Committee. It is the party’s top leadership body and pulls from a cross-section of its luminaries, including military officers, provincial officials and ministers.
The Central Committee has convened a meeting on Sunday to select about 25 officials who will comprise the Politburo, its executive policymaking body. (The precise number has varied in the past.) The selection is often done through back-room dealings. Historically, the group has been almost exclusively male, consisting of figures like party secretaries of major cities and directors of significant government offices.
From there, the group is further narrowed to the Politburo Standing Committee, the inner circle of power in Chinese politics. The committee’s members are responsible for the day-to-day running of the country.
The Standing Committee must include the party’s general secretary. On Sunday, Xi Jinping, claimed a rare third term as China’s top leader.
The other members of the Standing Committee usually include the premier, the first vice premier and the chairman of the National People’s Congress (not to be confused with the Communist Party congress).
The number of people on the Standing Committee has varied; some have had as few as five members, some as many as 11. The past two Standing Committees have had seven members.
Claire Fu contributed reporting.
Source : Nytimes
