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The 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party begins October 16, 2022 and

It is believed that either current Chinese leader Xi Jinping will be re-elected as the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, or will be newly elected as the chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, a title that has not been used since 1982, and the highest position held by Mao Zedong. Ming Pao reported that Xi will be re-elected as CCP leader and will be given the title "people's leader" (Chinese: 人民领袖; pinyin: Rénmín Lǐngxiù) in addition to his core leader title. Previously, only Mao Zedong and Hua Guofeng were given "leader" (Chinese: 领袖; pinyin: Lǐngxiù) titles.

Thus is is believed that the decision is primarily over the particular way in which Xi will be reaffirmed as leader of the CCP and with which designation, rather than "if".

As an aside, Voice of America's View China's Xi as Party Leader, Not President, Scholars Say reminds us that while the office of President of the People's Republic of China had the two 5-year term limit that was waved for Xi, there was no formal term limit for party leader for Xi, though several previous presidents did step down from that particular position after two terms.

Question: Is there any acknowledged opposition whatsoever to Xi as a potential candidate for party leader this October? Have any other names surfaced in publicly available discussions?

this comment suggests there might be, but it is unsourced.

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  • Though it pains me to include the [presidential-election] tag after explaining that the big deal is the selection of general secretary, we don't have a tag for this kind of election; this is the closest tag with sufficient gravitas (for lack of a better adjective). Perhaps the definition of this tag can be broadened, or some kind of a "[non-presidential-country-leader-election]" tag can be created?
    – uhoh
    Oct 8, 2022 at 23:59
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    First note that the 2 sources the wikipedia paragraph is based on are from 2021 and from March 2022, so they may be out of date (or not). Second, the actual decisions on succession where most likely made during the annual summer retreat of the Chinese leadership in Beidahe in the first half of August. The existence of this meeting is public knowledge but any results decided there will only be announced at the National Congress in mid October.
    – quarague
    Oct 9, 2022 at 6:15

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Within the Chinese Communist Party, there have always been two factions: the reformists and the conservatives. Xi Jinping is the representative of the conservative faction of the Communist Party. As early as the start of his second term in 2018, he prepared for a third term by amending China's constitution to remove term limits on the re-election of leaders from two to no term limits. There are some hints of resistance to Xi from the reformist wing of the party, such as the sudden appearance at this year's meeting of Deng Xiaoping's son, Deng Pufang (who had not been seen for many years and was once suspected to be dead), and the outright refusal of Jiang Zemin, who helped bring Xi to power, to attend this year's meeting. There is no doubt that the reformists' opposition has failed and Xi's re-election is a certainty. Before the conference, the most popular call on the Internet was for Li Keqiang to become the next president, which is the only discussion about the next leader of the Chinese Communist Party.

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  • Jiang Zemin is now 96 years old. It seems at least plausible that it was poor health, rather than any political consideration, which prevented him from attending the congress.
    – Charlie Evans
    Oct 21, 2022 at 20:27
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    In fact, some time ago there were photos of Jiang's birthday party released, Jiang is very healthy.
    – Allonsy Jia
    Oct 21, 2022 at 21:41
  • Indeed! This was supposedly due to health as well.
    – uhoh
    Oct 23, 2022 at 20:31
  • @AllonsyJia A 96 year old's health can deteriorate very rapidly, consider Elizabeth II for a prominent recent example. Unless you are personally acquainted with Jiang Zemin, you simply can't know that he is "very healthy".
    – Charlie Evans
    Oct 24, 2022 at 17:13
  • @CharlieEvans u r right to some extent. But, no matter how bad health he has, he will at least shows up in the opening ceremony, that's his style.
    – Allonsy Jia
    Oct 24, 2022 at 19:43

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