The Chinese Communist Party elite have a decades-old habit of determining policies and key political appointments while vacationing at Beidaihe, a resort town near the Bohai Sea off China’s east coast.
But Chinese leader Xi Jinping might be breaking from tradition this summer. Leisure will be the main agenda at Beidaihe, and meetings (usually of the political “horse-trading” sort) will take a backseat, The Epoch Times has learned from various sources. Also, elderly Party cadres won’t be welcome this year; in the past, influential retirees have usually become powerful backroom operators.
The new rules at Beidaihe come after several peculiar political and military moves by Xi in recent weeks. Xi appears to be continuing his ongoing campaign to eliminate a rival political faction and consolidate his control over the regime.
If Xi gains or maintains momentum leading up to a major political reshuffle that will take place at the Party’s 19th National Congress near the end of the year, he will almost certainly be able to populate the Politburo Standing Committee—the most powerful leadership body in the regime—with officials of his own choosing.
Political Resistance
Many China watchers or news publications believe Xi to be the most powerful Chinese leader in decades because he has accumulated a small stack of credentials—Communist Party “core” leader, military “commander-in-chief,” head of several small but powerful policymaking bodies, and more.
Credentials, however, are a poor indicator of a leader’s authority, given a political system in which mafia-like personal allegiances and sprawling patron-client networks allow former paramount leaders to remain influential well into their retirement.
