A recent article published in Duowei on August 19, 2017, claimed that the outcome from the recent Beidaihe meeting or “summer summit” indicated that Beijing has finished the final stretch of the preparation that has been planned for the upcoming 19th People’s Congress. Importantly, it disclosed that that the elderly members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), who held substantial power during the 1980s and 1990s, maintained their “silence” during the meeting compared to the 18th National Congress in 2012 when several of the elderly members made frequent appearances prior to the conference. The article quoted another Duowei article which stated that this was indication that China (Xi Jinping) is almost free of “elder statesman politics.” 

However this does not mean that the 'elderly members' are completely out of the picture. One example is Jiang Zemin, who had his 91st birthday on August 17. His health has always been a subject of the public’s attention. The article stated that one of the major agenda items to watch for in the 19th National Congress is the personnel changes and whether Wang Qishan, a member of the seven-man Politburo Standing Committee will still remain in power.