China's Politburo Standing Committee: Who's who?

With the inclusion of the "Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era" in the constitution of the Communist Party (CPC), the president has taken a huge step toward consolidating his leadership beyond 2022. Xi has been given the customary second five-year term as the CPC's general secretary and has laid the foundation for a possible, unprecedented third term.

The 62-year-old Li is primarily responsible for China's economic and social affairs. As prime minister, Li has also been working on minimizing air pollution. He is the only member of the committee apart from Xi to remain in his place. The other five are newcomers who replaced those who retired having reached the unwritten age limit of 68.

Li Zhanshu is a close confidant of President Xi's. He heads the CPC's General Office. A former governor of the northeastern Heilongjiang province, Li often accompanies Xi on foreign trips. Li and Xi have been friends since the 1980s, when they worked together in Hebei province.

Wang Yang is an economist and a former party chief of Guangdong province. For a brief period, Wang was an advocate for social and political reforms in the country. He is responsible for foreign trade, including commerce between the United States and China.

Sixty-two-year-old political scientist Wang Huning served as a policy researcher under Presidents Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao. Under Xi, Wang has kept his position as head of the Central Policy Research Office. He coined the terms "Three Represents" and "Scientific Outlook Development" — respectively, Jiang's and Hu's contributions to party thought — and the "Chinese Dream" as part of Xi's vision.

Sixty-year-old Zhao Leji (right) studied philosophy at the prestigious Peking University and began his political career in the western province of Qinghai. Since 2012, Zhao has headed the CPC's powerful Organization Department, which oversees personnel decisions. Zhao and Xi are both natives of Shaanxi province in central China.

Han Zheng, 63, has been the mayor of Shanghai for the past 15 years. In 2007, when Xi briefly became the party's secretary for Shanghai, the two worked together in China's financial hub.