Fewsmith Offers Insights into Xi Jinping’s Influential Inner Circle
Joseph Fewsmith, Professor of International Relations at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, was quoted in a Business Insider article exploring the complex power structure of Chinese politics and the most influential people in President Xi Jinping’s inner circle.
The article, titled “These are the 12 most powerful people in China you’ve probably never heard of,” surveyed experts who provided insights into the inner workings of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), what true power means in China, and who wields it. Fewsmith discussed Li Keqiang, the premier of the People’s Republic of China and the Party secretary of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China; Li Zhanshu, a ranking member of the Politburo Standing Committee and the current chairman of the standing committee of China’s National People’s Congress; Wang Huning, secretary of the Central Secretariat of the CCP; and Han Zheng, Deputy Party Secretary of the State and the first vice-premier of China. He commented on these men’s relationship with Xi, the power and influence they yield, and their future in the Chinese government.
The full article can be read on Business Insider‘s website.
Joseph Fewsmith is a Professor of International Relations at the Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University He is the author or editor of eight books, including, most recently, Rethinking Chinese Politics (June 2021). He is an associate of the John King Fairbank Center for East Asian Studies at Harvard University and the Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future at Boston University. Read more about Professor Fewsmith on his faculty profile.