| Summary/Abstract |
This article analyzes the 19th National Congress of the Chinese Communist
Party (CCP) held in October 2017. It focuses on leadership changes (including
power succession) and revision of the Party Constitution. It tries to answer the
question of whether Xi Jinping’s “one-man rule”, instead of collective leadership,
was established after the Congress. First, it looks at several norms concerning
personnel selection (including the 68 age-limit regulation) that play a critical role
in maintaining collective leadership. Second, it examines to which extent the 19th
Party Congress upheld these norms. Third, this paper investigates the enshrining of
Xi Jinping Thought in the Party Constitution and the implications with regards to
the changes of elite politics. It argues that the Party Congress followed the norms
relatively well, and that collective leadership still persists. In other words, Xi’s
“one-man rule” is not established yet
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