Li,67,who has a PhD in economics and Wang both favoured more liberal economic policies. Wang,who belongs to the same faction,was seen as a compromise candidate to replace Li but has also been pushed out despite not reaching the formal retirement age.

Li had been a moderate voice on China’s COVID-zero policy and urged local authorities not to strangle the economy by going too far with their crackdowns on commerce and restrictions on movement. He was also a defender of former leader Deng Xiaoping’s policies on “reform and opening up” which are coming under increasing pressure as Xi looks to make China more self-sufficient in the face of growing geopolitical tension.

“China will adhere to the basic national policy of opening up,and the door to opening up will only open wider and wider,” Li said in September.

Xi’s chief of staff Ding Xuexiang and his proteges Li Qiang,Li Xi and Chen Min’er are the top candidates to come into the Standing Committee. Only one of Li’s allies,vice premier Hu Chunhua,is still in the running to be promoted to Xi’s cabinet.

“If Shanghai Party Secretary Li Qiang (rather than Wang Yang) becomes premier,then any power balance at the top ceases to exist,” said Yang Zhang,an assistant professor at the American University in Washington.

Foreign Minister Wang Yi remained on the broader Central Committee despite speculation that he would retire and may now come into the 25-member Politburo to replace China’s top foreign policy chief Yang Jiechi.

The group of seven men on the Standing Committee have historically been a consultative body for the Chinese leader,but power has been increasingly concentrated around Xi during his ten years in power. Xi’s third term cabinet is expected to be the first time in decades that there is not a 3-4 split between the more moderate and control factions.

The National Party Congress on Saturday also passed resolutions that cemented Xi’s place as “the core” of the Party.

The party approved Xi’s “Two Safeguards” and the “Two Establishes” - which will see “Xi Jinping Thought” guide the Party’s philosophical,security and economic direction for the next generation.

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