The top leadership line-up of the Communist Party of China (CPC) made a group debut on Monday at the first plenum of the 17th CPC Central Committee, with Hu Jintao reelected as Party chief for the second term.
New faces in the pinnacle Political Bureau Standing Committee of the CPC Central Committee are Xi Jinping, Li Keqiang, He Guoqiang and Zhou Yongkang. They joined the nine-member echelon with the five remaining members of the previous standing committee, namely Hu Jintao, Wu Bangguo, Wen Jiabao, Jia Qinglin and Li Changchun.
Other newcomers in the 25-member Political Bureau are Wang Gang, Wang Qishan, Liu Yandong, Li Yuanchao, Wang Yang, Zhang Gaoli, Xu Caihou and Bo Xilai.
Six of the newly elected Political Bureau members and the CPC Central Committee Secretariat were born in the 1950s. They spent their formative years in a peaceful but changing China.
They outlived the severest natural disasters in modern China that lasted from 1959 to 1961, witnessed in their childhood the frenetic development of the Great Leap Forward (1958-61), and grew up during the "cultural revolution" (1966-76), which threw China into decade-long turmoil.
With bachelor's degrees and doctorates, they rose from the grassroots, acquainted themselves with the lives of the people and stood out with expertise in economy, business management and social sciences.
"With these people joining in, the central collective leadership of the Party has gained more vigor and vitality," Professor Liu Chun, deputy dean of the Graduate Institute of the Party School of the CPC Central Committee, said.
（英语点津 Linda 编辑）
About the broadcaster:
Marc Checkley is a freelance journalist and media producer from Auckland, New Zealand. Marc has an eclectic career in the media/arts, most recently working as a radio journalist for NewstalkZB, New Zealand’s leading news radio network, as a feature writer for Travel Inc, New Nutrition Business (UK) and contributor for Mana Magazine and the Sunday Star Times. Marc is also a passionate arts educator and is involved in various media/theatre projects in his native New Zealand and Singapore where he is currently based. Marc joins the China Daily with support from the Asia New Zealand Foundation.
