Who Will Succeed Xi Jinping?

Foreign Policy · Deng Yuwen · 2026-11-06 16:18 UTC

Provincial reshuffles may offer some clues.

Provincial reshuffles may offer some clues.

Ever since Xi Jinping bucked norms and made it clear he would not be held to a two-term limit as president of China and general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), there has been intense interest in who could succeed him. Xi has purged several possible successors, but he is also aging—and even if he tries to hold onto power, he may find it easier to appoint a chosen favorite.

Although there is still no broadly recognized successor—and no such figure is likely to emerge before the CCP’s 21st National Congress late next year, if then—the intensive reshuffling of provincial officials on the eve of the Fifth Plenum may offer some clues.

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