Xi elected general secretary of CPC central committee: Official communique

Beijing: Chinese President Xi Jinping was elected general secretary of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) at the committee’s first plenary session held on Sunday, according to an official communique.

The session, presided over by Xi, was attended by 203 members of the CPC Central Committee and 168 alternate members.

Xi, 69, was also named chairman of the CPC Central Military Commission (CMC), the overall high command of the Chinese military at the session.

The CPC also named the new seven-member Standing Committee, its inner circle of power.

The new seven-member Standing Committee is packed with Xi’s loyalists.

The members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee elected at the session are Xi Jinping, Li Qiang, Zhao Leji, Wang Huning, Cai Qi, Ding Xuexiang and Li Xi, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

Also elected were members of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee at the session, which endorsed the members of the CPC Central Committee Secretariat nominated by the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.

The session also named the members of the CMC.

The session approved the secretary, deputy secretaries and members of the Standing Committee of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) elected at the first plenary session of the 20th CCDI.