After the 19th Party Congress last fall and the recent “two meetings” in March, the party-state has now completed its quinquennial leadership turnover and announced a major restructuring of a number of party and state entities.

The Trump administration’s recent U.S. National Security and National Defense Strategies have drawn strong criticisms from the Chinese and have increased tensions in the U.S.-China relationship.

In October 2017 at the first plenary session of the 19th Central Committee, Chinese state media announced the lineup of the new Central Military Commission (CMC). 

The National People’s Congress meeting in March launched a significant administrative reorganization and approved the appointment of a new generation of economic technocrats.

The abolition of constitutional term limits on the post of PRC president has attracted more attention than usually attends Chinese leadership politics, and sparked a flood of speculation about the purposes of Xi Jinping in engineering it.