Chinese President places confidantes in key positions

BEIJING: To steer the propaganda machinery in the run-up to the 20th National Congress, several transfers/postings have been made recently, placing Chinese President Xi Jinping's confidantes at key places.

A former senior official at Central Party School Li Shulei, who is considered close to President Xi and has also favourably written about Xi in the state media, has been appointed as Deputy Minister in Central Propaganda Department.

Similarly, a veteran CCP media person Fu Hua has been appointed as President of Xinhua News Agency and Lu Yansong has been brought in as editor-in-chief, whereas Xi's protege Xu Lin has been appointed as Head of National Radio and Television Administration.

While President Jinping is all set to secure his third term in power, China is not as strong as it used to be in the pre-COVID times.

With the National People's Congress of China in 2018 approving the removal of the two-term limit on the presidency, President of China Xi Jinping can now effectively remain in power for life, reported Geopolitica.info.

China's aspiration to be a global superpower has been brought to a virtual standstill because its supreme leader, Xi Jinping, does not want to take any chance on the way to ensure a record third term in power.

The most visible manifestation of this uncertainty is the draconian lockdown norms enforced as part of a zero-Covid policy.

The date of the 20th National Congress of CPC to be held in 2022 has not yet been announced, except that it would be held sometime in the second half of the year. As the Congress of the CPC approaches, everything does not seem to be hunky-dory for President Xi Jinping.

The era of Xi Jinping has been marked by controversial measures like the crackdown on corruption, punishing over a million officials, and weeding out efficient officials in the process.

Reliability and loyalty are now the only criteria for heading public- and private-sector organizations. Observers believe this is one of the reasons why the pandemic situation has been mismanaged, leading to food shortages in cities like Shanghai and Xi'an and the spectre of a crop failure in rural areas.

On the international front, the emphasis of Xi Jinping on the occupation of Taiwan and the smothering of democracy in Hong Kong under the National Security Law has resulted in a sharp deterioration of relationships with the US and other Western countries, reported Geopolitica.info.

After the removal of the two-term limit on the presidency in 2018, Fan Liqin, a liberal intellectual, in an article written in the forum of Peking University, accused Xi Jinping of promoting a "personality cult." He feared that a personality cult around the leader would result in a great tragedy for China and the Chinese people.

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