Xi secures third term, packs new leadership team with loyalists

Top line-up, which includes 4 new faces who are Xi's men, shows his dominance

- Tan Dawn Wei

President Xi Jinping has assumed a rare third term as China's most powerful leader in decades, defying norms and the factional balance of power by stacking his leadership team with his political allies.

In a clear indication that his domination is now unshakeable, he has installed loyalists in all the four seats vacated by retiring members - including promoting Shanghai party chief Li Qiang, 63, to be his No. 2 and the likely next premier.

Members of the new team filed out into a hall of waiting journalists at the Great Hall of the People on Sunday, with Mr Xi leading the way and later introducing them in order of their rank in the new Politburo Standing Committee, the apex of power.

The major reshuffle will likely see the two returning members - anticorruption czar Zhao Leji, 65, and ideology chief Wang Huning, 67-take on new portfolios as chairman of Parliament and head of Parliament's advisory body respectively.

Besides Shanghai's Mr Li, the newcomers are Beijing party chief Cai Qi, 66; director of the party's general office Ding Xuexiang, 60; and Guangdong party chief Li Xi, 66.