BEIJING: China’s Xi Jinping secured a precedent-breaking third leadership term on Sunday and introduced a new Politburo Standing Committee, cementing his place as the country’s most powerful ruler since Mao Zedong.

Shanghai Communist Party chief Li Qiang, 63, followed Xi onto the stage at the Great Hall of the People as the new leadership team was introduced, meaning he is likely to succeed Li Keqiang as premier when he retires in March.

The other members of the seven-man Standing Committee, China’s top governing body, are Zhao Leji and Wang Huning, who return from the previous committee, and newcomers Cai Qi, Ding Xuexiang and Li Xi. Li Qiang is also new to the Standing Committee.

All are perceived to have close allegiance to Xi, 69, who was also re-appointed on Sunday as chairman of the Central Military Commission.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif congratulated Xi. “On behalf of the entire Pakistani nation, I congratulate President Xi Jinping on his reelection as CPC General Secretary for the 3rd term,” the premier said on Twitter.

“It is a glowing tribute to his sagacious stewardship and unwavering devotion for serving the people of China.”

“An abnormally lopsided victory for one faction, which is rare in the tradition of the Communist Party, in the past there would be a rough balance of power,” said Willy Lam, a senior fellow at US think tank the Jamestown Foundation.

“It means there won’t be any checks and balances. Xi Jinping also has total control over the larger Politburo and Central Committee,” he said.

The unveiling of the Standing Committee and the larger 24-member Politburo comes a day after the closing of the ruling Communist Party’s 20th Congress, where amendments were added to the party charter aimed at cementing the core status of Xi and the guiding role of his political thought within the party.

In terms of policymaking, it does mean that there is likely to be more deference to Xi Jinping’s own views about how to move the country and the economy forward,“ said Alvin Tan, head of Asia FX strategy at RBC Capital Markets in Singapore.

“I can imagine that zero-Covid policy is likely more entrenched, and there is going to be further push on this issue of common prosperity and the like,” he said.