Xi Jinping, China’s strongman, is expected to consolidate his power at the gathering in Beijing. The development of rules is certainly an improvement over the no-holds-barred fighting of the Maoist era, where losers sometimes lost their lives. To ensure peaceful leadership transitions, Deng Xiaoping, who made himself Mao’s successor, not only selected his successor, Jiang Zemin, but also his successor’s successor. Hu Jintao, no ally of Jiang, took over in a mostly “smooth” process beginning in 2002 at the 16th Congress, thanks to Deng. The willful Xi, after rumors of severe disagreements among senior Party politicians, took over from Hu as the Party’s general secretary at the 18th Congress.

Source: Forbes September 11, 2017 02:15 UTC