China : Delegates Selected to the 19Th Party Congress
28 July 2017 CHINA : DELEGATES SELECTED TO THE 19TH PARTY CONGRESS by JAYADEVA RANADE Preparations for the 19th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) which, according to credible reports is likely to be held towards the end of October 2017, are well underway. The election of 2,300 Delegates to the Party Congress from 40 electoral blocs has virtually been completed. 2,270 Delegates were elected to the 18th Party Congress in November 2012. 1,909 Delegates for the 19th Party Congress representing Central Departments directly under the CCP Central Committee (CC), Central State organs, the Central Enterprise system and the provinces and centrally-administered Municipalities, have been elected. The Politburo Standing Committee (PBSC) members are, as per practice, all Delegates to the 19th Party Congress. Pertinently and possibly because of the focus this year on poverty alleviation, all PBSC members represent the poorer provinces. Xi Jinping is the Delegate from Guizhou, Li Keqiang from Guangxi, Zhang Dejiang from Inner Mongolia, Yu Zhengsheng from Xinjiang, Liu Yunshan represents Yunnan, Wang Qishan is the Delegate from Hunan and Zhang Gaoli from Shaanxi. The list of Delegates representing the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and People’s Armed Police Force (PAP) has not yet been released. At the 18th Party Congress in 2012 there were a total of 251 Delegates, or 10% of the total number, representing the PLA and 49 representing the PAP. The Hongkong media has pointed out at least eight prominent omissions from the list of Delegates to the upcoming Congress. All are either Full or Alternate members of the 18th CCP Central Committee and all are, interestingly, past members of the Communist Youth League (CYL).
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