BBC World News Xi Jinping and the New Politburo Standing Committee Robert Lawrence Kuhn October 25, 2017 HOST: We're going to put a question to Robert Lawrence ‘ Kuhn, who’s a long-time advisor to the Chinese = , government. Robert, great to see you again. You were f . ) | - with us at the very beginning of the Party Congress and & s . you were at the Congress today when it finished. Did you X i. ae ia a have any vision, any inkling that President Xi Jinping : A — . ; i : would take on so much authority? Also, what about the Bik > * re =in pe fact that there is no successor candidates among the new y leaders? . RLK: I was interviewed in early 2012 by a well-known American television network and the question put to me, in January of that year, was, “isn’t Xi Jinping going to be a cece ee Eee ns PUERTO Re very weak leader because he was not appointed by Deng a. ~ SE = of Xiaoping and he has no strong base of support?” 1 HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_023679