CCP Meet: Big Hu, Small Hu and the who's who

Here's what we have learnt about China's emerging trajectory and ideology under Xi Jinping from observing the events before and after the Party Congress

China’s 20th Party Congress, which concluded on October 23, held a long mirror to China’s opaque politics. The Congress was, indeed, a festschrift to President Xi Jinping, delivered by Mr Xi himself. 

Besides, it introduced the leaders of the Standing Committee of the Politburo (PBSC), China’s most powerful body, who entered the Great Hall of the People in descending order of rank. Xi entered first, re-affirming his historic third term and his status as more primus than primus inter pares. Li Qiang (63), the party secretary of Shanghai (previously governor of prosperous Zhejiang province), emerged next in the line, as China’s