Xi Jinping Retires Key Party Leaders to Free Space for Allies

Key leaders of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) are unprecedentedly forced into retirement, making room for top leader Xi Jinping to consolidate power by appointing his allies.

CNN reported that Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and Wang Yang, who have not had close ties with Xi, were not included in the new central committee of the CCP.

This means they have left the nearly 200-member top ruling body of China and will focus on retirement.

China's constitution provides that Li must step down in March as China's second highest-ranking leader, giving him only two terms in power. At the same time, Wang, who leads the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, is expected by some as a potential successor to Li.

Both are aged 67 and qualified to serve another five years on the party's supreme Politburo Standing Committee as the unofficial but widely practiced retirement age is 68. Despite this, they are retiring early from the party's apex of power.

Li and Wang's unexpected departures gives way to two more spots in the Standing Committee which Xi may choose to fill in with his allies.

Xi is expected to be appointed on Sunday and get another five years as the party's general secretary, allowing him to possibly rule for life at the age of 69 — surpassing the retirement age of 68 for senior party leaders.

Victor Shih, an expert on elite Chinese politics at the University of California San Diego, was quoted by CNN as saying that a standing committee line-up composed of Xi loyalists might change China's power-sharing agreement since the late 1970s.