Today China’s new Politburo Standing Committee was unveiled, which will sit atop China’s government for the next five years. As was widely anticipated, the committee has been reduced from nine members to seven. Here are the new members ordered by their rank.
1. Xi Jinping (習(xí)近平)
General Secretary of CPC Central Committee
Chairman of CPC Central Military Comission
The 59-year-old Shaanxi native has served on the Politburo Standing Committee as vice-president since 2007. He studied chemical engineering at Tsinghua University. He’s previously served as governor of Fujian Province, and party chief of both Zhejiang Province and Shanghai Municipality.
2. Li Keqiang (李克強(qiáng))
The 57-year-old law school graduate from Peking University was born and raised in Anhui Province. At age 43 he became the youngest governor in China in Henan Province and was later promoted to party chief. In 2004 he became party chief of Liaoning Province before ascending to the Politburo Standing Committee in 2007 as a vice-premier.
3. Zhang Dejiang (張德江)
Zhang, 66, hails from Liaoning Province and was educated in economics at Kim-Il Sung University in North Korea. He’s served as party head of Jilin, Zhejiang and Guangdong Provinces, as well as Chongqing Municipality. He ascended to the Politburo in 2002 and in 2008 became vice-premier in charge of China's energy, telecommunications and transportation industries.
4. Yu Zhengsheng (俞正聲)
67-years-old and born in Zhejiang Province, Yu graduated from Harbin's Military Engineering Institute after studying automatic control of ballistic missiles. He’s served as the Minister of Construction, party secretary of Hubei Province and most recently party secretary of Shanghai. He joined the Politburo in 2002.
5. Liu Yunshan(劉云山)
The 65-year-old Shanxi native joined the Politburo in 2002 when he became director of the Propaganda Department of the CPC Central Committee. He began his career in Inner Mongolia. It was there that he studied public administration at Jining Teachers College.
6. Wang Qishan (王岐山)
64-years-old, Wang was born in Qingdao of Shandong Province. He majored in history at Northwest University. He previously served as the governor of China Construction Bank, party secretary of Hainan Province and mayor of Beijing. Since 2007 he’s served on the Politburo and assumed the role of vice-premier of the State Council in 2008.
7. Zhang Gaoli (張高麗)
66 years old, Jiang comes from Fujian Province with an economics degree from Xiamen University. He’s the former party chief of Shenzhen and party secretary of both Shandong and Tianjin Provinces. He joined the Politburo in 2007.