On the second day after the conclusion of the First Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee, Hu Jintao stated at an enlarged meeting of the Military Commission that Xi Jinping was a qualified General Secretary and Chairman of the Military Commission. Xi Jinping, in turn, highly praised Hu Jintao for voluntarily stepping down as Chairman of the Military Commission, marking the official completion of the power transition.
The First Plenary Session of the 18th CCP Central Committee has concluded. Xi Jinping, Li Keqiang, Zhang Dejiang, Yu Zhengsheng, Liu Yunshan, Wang Qishan, and Zhang Gaoli have become the new members of the Politburo Standing Committee. Among them, Li Keqiang is the only representative of the Hu Jintao faction, while the Jiang Zemin faction holds the majority.
The New York Times published a world-shaking investigative report revealing that relatives of Wen Jiabao's family secretly controlled assets worth approximately USD 2.7 billion.
Following Ling Plan's departure, Li Zhanshu officially assumed office as the Director of the CCP Central Committee Office on September 1, 2012, stepping into the core power circle of the General Office in advance.
Bloomberg publishes an investigative report revealing that relatives of Xi Jinping control $376 million in assets, kicking off the high-level political power struggle on the eve of the 18th National Congress.
In the early morning of March 18, 2012, Ling Gu, the only son of Ling Jihua, died in a Ferrari crash near the Baofusi Bridge on Beijing's North Fourth Ring Road. Two young women in the car were severely injured, triggering high-level political maneuvering and intensive news censorship.
On March 14, 2012, Wen Jiabao delivered a speech at the Two Sessions Chinese and foreign press conference, emphasizing that without political structural reform, economic structural reform cannot succeed, and warning that the tragedy of the Cultural Revolution could happen again.
On March 15, 2012, Bo Xilai was dismissed from his post as secretary of the Chongqing Municipal Committee of the CCP, and three days later Ling Gu died in a car accident in Beijing. These two incidents became critical turning points in the restructuring of the top leadership power structure of the Chinese Communist Party on the eve of the 18th National Congress.
Wang Lijun, disguised, fled and broke into the US Consulate in Chengdu, marking the collapse of Bo Xilai's political empire.
On the eve of the 18th National Congress power transition and around the downfall of Bo Xilai, The New York Times published an investigative report revealing that Wen Jiabao's family controlled $2.7 billion in hidden wealth.