Xi Jinping set to become most influential Chinese leader since Mao Zedong
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As Chinese President Xi Jinping (left) looks on, the former President Hu Jintao is escorted from the closing session of the National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party
Beijing: The week-long congress of China's Communist Party suggests President President Xi Jinping will on Sunday hold reins of the nation for the third time bringing the country back towards one-man rule.
The party congress, taking place at the Great Hall of the People, elected a new Central Committee of around 200 senior party officials, according to AFP news agency.
Keeping to the tradition of the party the newly elected committee will elect the Standing Committee that will become the apex form of power in China atop of where Xi will sit to govern both the party and the nation—quite unlike sharing power among the elite.
President Xi Jinping is becoming most influential leader since founder Mao Zedong, as he is shortly be declared as the general secretary of the Communist Party again.
High-ranking cadres of the party stood by the top brass, endorsing the reshuffle in ranks which saw many top leaders stepping down.
Reports earlier said that Xi would pack the Central Committee with his loyalists. AFP news agency quoted Willy Lam, a political analyst based in Chinese University of Hong Kong as saying that the party congress is "a total victory for Xi".
While Chinese state media was on message, reporting only the sanitized version of the events, foreign media unveiled how Xi is gaining supremacy over the party and the nation.
One significant example emerged at the congress was how former President Hu Jintao was led out of the closing ceremony of the congress despite he resisted it.
He was seated beside Xi Jimping at the front row when two stewards came along and asked him to leave. The 79-year-old leader was caught unawares and tried to dig his heels in remaining there.
But he was eventually escorted out of the room, while Xi was indifferently watching the event unfolding beside him. While leaving, Hu Jintao tried to say something to Xi to which the president did not pay much attention.
When the incident ran wild in western media, China's state media on Saturday said that Hu insisted on attending the session in spite of being unwell.
Meanwhile, opening the 20 th Congress last Sunday, President Xi enumerated the party's achievement but he chose to overlook issues like poorly performing economy and crisis that stemmed from his zero-covid policy, according to the report.