As Sinocism predicted in the 10.25 newsletter, Xi loyalists Huang Kunming 黄坤明 and Ding Xuexiang 丁薛祥 have been named Minister of Propaganda and head of the Central Committee General Office, respectively-Xi Jinping’s allies named as head of propaganda, chief of staff as president tightens grip on power | South China Morning Post.

It is still unclear who will run the Policy Research Office and how the vice premier slots will be filled. Yang Jiechi 杨洁篪, Liu He 刘鹤, Sun Chunlan 孙春兰, and Hu Chunhua 胡春华 all make sense for vice premierships, but for all to get one the Party would have to add a slot. By my count the Politburo members still without publicized new jobs are Wang Chen 王晨, Liu He, Sun Chunlan, Yang Jiechi, Yang Xiaodu 杨晓渡, Hu Chunhua.

Xi is putting loyalists in key positions outside of the Politburo Standing Committee and in effect ring-fencing some of the PBSC members who may not be original members of Team Xi. That coupled with Xi Thought in the Party Constitution and it looks like …