China’s Communist Party unveiled its new leadership lineup on Wedneday, granting President Xi Jinping another five years in power as general secretary and including no obvious successor in the senior-most ranks.

Xi introduced the six other all-male members of the Politburo Standing Committee to the media, breaking with recent convention by not including a potential heir in the lineup. That appears to raise the chances that Xi could stay on in power beyond 2022.

On Tuesday, the Communist Party amended its constitution to insert Xi Jinping Thought as a guiding principle for the party, elevating Xi to the same status as its most important historical figures, Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping.

That means that Xi is likely to wield ultimate authority in the party as long as he is alive, experts say, and makes any challenge to that authority tantamount to an attack on the party itself.

Apart from Xi, the only other member of the previous Standing Committee to retain his seat was Premier Li Keqiang, with the other five all newcomers replacing retiring members.

Among those stepping down was a key Xi ally, the head of the powerful anticorruption authority, Wang Qishan, who at 69 had reached the normal retirement age.

Xi and Li had both been promoted to the Standing Committee in 2007, giving them five years’ experience to draw on before they took the top two spots in the party hierarchy in 2012. 

This time around, there is no such succession plan. 

Guangdong party secretary Hu Chunhua and Chongqing party boss Chen Miner had been seen as possible contenders, but neither made it to the Standing Committee, both having to be content with a place at the next level down, in the 25-member Politburo. 

Another prominent figure, Sun Zhengcai, was sensationally ousted this year, accused of corruption, removed from his post and kicked out of the party.

This leaves Xi more powerful than ever, having already overshadowed and undercut Li, whose role is mainly occupied with the economy.

Third in seniority is Li Zhanshu, who is seen as an ally of the president and serves as his chief of staff. Then comes Vice Premier Wang Yang, followed by Wang Huning, director of the party’s Central Policy Research Office; and Zhao Leji, who takes over as head of the anticorruption agency, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. 

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