I recently saw a post here commemorating Xi on his 70th birthday. Quite the accomplishment in terms of how well he is doing as a leader, and in terms of personal health.
However, this also got me thinking. What comes after Xi? Sadly he is not immortal, and is rapidly approaching an age where he will not be able to as effectively carry out his duties. Plus he deserves to retire at some point to also enjoy his life.
From this, are there plans for who will take Xi's place? Who are the candidates with the most potential in terms of being elected? What will be China's path after Xi's resignation in terms of economic, geopolitical, military, and social development? Will Xi's path be continued, or will a new leader decide to change course? Will a continuation of Dengist policies be committed to, as Xi did, or will there be a return to the policies of the Four?
Preferably Comrades who are Chinese, have ties to China, or are knowledgeable in the subject could give their observations and opinions, but for everyone else, what are your thoughts?
Xi isn't the first General Secretary (总书记) of the CCCPC (Central Committee of the CPC, 中共中央委员会) to serve a third term, Jiang served 13 years from 1989~2002 for 3 terms, and Xi is only in his 11th year since Oct 2022. Deng was General Secretary for 10 years in 1956~1966 (this was just 1 term), back when the Central Committee still had a President position.
In short, serving 10 years for 2 terms as a General Secretary was never the norm, only Hu Jintao fits this description. As for the President of the PRC (中华人民共和国主席), Mao (1949~1959, and technically only 1954~1959 counts, he was President of the PRC People's Government in 1949~1954, but we'll let that slide), Jiang (1993~2003) and Hu (2003~2013) served 10 years for 2 terms, hardly a tradition/norm. Xi is indeed serving an unprecedented third term as President of the PRC, after limits were removed in 2018's amendment to the constitution.
Now for the various scenarios in 2027:
If scenario 2 occurs, the candidates to look at are:
Link (in Chinese) to all the 205+171 candidates mentioned above, good luck finding the next leader!