China's Leadership Transition: Continuity at All Costs

Editor's Note: This is the final installment of a series on China's political future. Click to read part one, part two and part three.

There were few, if any, surprises in the selection of China's new Politburo Standing Committee, the country's highest governing body. At the first plenary session of the final day of the 18th Party Congress, the 25-member Politburo formally elected the seven men who will lead China for the next five years. The members of the new Standing Committee have been known to the world for more than two years thanks to Beijing's efforts to reinforce a sense of continuity and stability as one generation of Chinese leaders hands over power to another. 

The ability to look at the country's many challenges and still project continuity could be the Party's greatest strength. However, its determined, even structural, aversion to change could prevent the Party from responding effectively to those challenges, setting it on a downward course.