The 19th Central Committee for Xi Jinping's "New Era": Breaking Conventional Party Rules?

The 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) built up a new leading team, the 19th Central Committee (19th CC). Prior to and also via this congress, Chinese President Xi Jinping was in full control installing political elites in this team and subsequently designated some of them to fulfil his governance priorities. This research article examines Xi's personnel arrangement by reviewing the selection process of political elites and analysing the composition of the non-military full members in the 19th CC. It explores the degree to which Xi followed conventional Party rules in promoting political elites and discusses the trends and impacts of building this committee. The author argues that Xi has made a conservative personnel arrangement by retaining a large number of aged elites and previous CC members, and by designating them to important positions. In addition, as young and promising successors are limited in the 19th CC, a massive leadership reshuffle will be anticipated in the next national congress.