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Article snippet: BEIJING — President Xi Jinping thrust China into a new era of strongman politics on Wednesday, unveiling a leadership team without a likely successor among the six officials who will help him rule for the next half decade. In a nationally televised ceremony, Mr. Xi introduced the new members of China’s highest council of power, the Communist Party’s Politburo Standing Committee, on the red carpet of the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. In addition to Mr. Xi and China’s premier, Li Keqiang, the committee included five new members, all of them men in their 60s. “Over the past five years, we’ve done a lot. Some work has been finished, some we must continue with,” Mr. Xi, 64, said after briefly introducing each of the other committee members who stood stiffly in line. “A new era needs a new look, and even more needs new accomplishments,” he added. The debut followed a weeklong party congress in Beijing that underlined the breadth of Mr. Xi’s political ambitions. On Tuesday, its final day, the congress elevated Mr. Xi to the same exalted status as the nation’s founding father, Mao Zedong, by enshrining “Xi Jinping Thought” in the party’s constitution. The five new Standing Committee members are party leaders with long careers in Chinese politics, including one of Mr. Xi’s longtime allies and a scholar of international relations. But the party declined to name a younger leader to the committee who might succeed Mr. Xi when his second term as president ends in 2023.... Link to the full article to read more