China’s NPC: Who are the top men tapped to support Xi Jinping?

China’s National People’s Congress wrapped up on Monday after announcing a host of top officials that will assist Xi. While many of the top posts have traditionally been handed out with an eye on keeping China’s different political factions happy, Xi, who was reelected on Friday by a unanimous vote of China’s rubber-stamp parliament, has sidelined rival groupings such as the Youth League, associated with former President Hu Jintao, former Premier Li Keqiang and former Vice Premier Wang Yang. Carston Holz, an expert on the Chinese economy and visiting professor at Princeton University, said that the top appointees, despite their prominence, will ultimately have “little authority to undertake significant reforms without Xi Jinping’s approval”. Some of the top officials supporting Xi include: Premier Li Qiang Replacing the former premier, Li may be best known to outsiders for instituting Shanghai’s controversial “zero COVID” lockdowns between March and June last year as Communist Party Secretary in the country’s largest metropolis. “The reason for the difference and distance traditionally is that the first and second-ranked Party officials came into their position often through political compromise that takes into the interest of different networks and groups in the Party.” Executive Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang Ding, 60, is also the director of the General Office of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee, a position he has held since 2017 and works closely with Xi as his de facto chief of staff.