According to an article that Duowei published, the outcome from the recent Beidaihe meeting or “summer summit” indicated that Beijing has finished the final stretch of the preparation that has been planned for the upcoming 19th People’s Congress. One unique phenomenon that materialized at this meeting was the “silence” that the elderly members of the Communist Party of China, who held substantial power during the 1980s and 1990s, displayed, compared to the 18th National Congress in 2012 when several of the elderly members made frequent appearances prior to the conference. The article quoted another Duowei article which stated that it was an indication that China (Xi Jinping) is almost free of “elder statesman politics.” However it does not mean that the elderly members are completely out of the picture. One example is Jiang Zemin, who had his 91st birthday on August 17. His health has always been a subject of the public’s attention. The article stated that one of the major agenda items to watch for in the 19th National Congress is the personnel changes and whether Wang Qishan, a member of the seven-man Politburo Standing Committee will still remain in power.
Source: Duowei, August 19, 2017
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