CHINA

Xi may target league’s university ahead of reshuffle
China’s Communist Party is considering further steps to curb the influence of the Communist Youth League, an organisation that President Xi Jinping has criticised for being too aristocratic. The league’s university may put an end to undergraduate admissions, according to a person familiar with the discussions, who asked not to be identified. That would leave it with postgraduate and training programmes for up-and-coming cadres, reports Bloomberg News.Such a move would send a message to younger people about an organisation that’s been a traditional springboard for leadership posts but was not the route to power for Xi. It could reverberate through a twice-a-decade reshuffle at next year’s party congress, when several prominent league alumni will be in the running for positions in the party’s uppermost echelons.
The China Youth University of Political Studies in Beijing was set up in 1985 when former president Hu Jintao headed the league. While Hu used the league to groom protégés such as Premier Li Keqiang, Xi has ordered its members to get more in touch with the masses.
Full report on the Bloomberg site