China's New Cabinet; Xi The Helmsman and the Oath-taker; Yang Xiaodu To Head The National Supervisory Commission; US-China Tensions May Be Immune To Firefighter Wang Qishan

Happy Monday...The NPC has just Tuesday morning left. This weekend saw several key decisions, with a couple of surprises:

Wang Qishan is now Vice President;

Surprise 1-CCDI Deputy Secretary Yang Xiaodu is the head of the new National Supervisory Commission;

Surprise 2-Yi Gang is the new head of the People's Bank of China;

The four vice premiers are Han Zheng, Liu He, Sun Chunlan and Hu Chunhua, while Yang Jiechi looks left out in the cold;

Fu Zhenghua is now Minister of Justice. Lawyers and Guo Wengui can’t be happy…

The propaganda surrounding the NPC has made clear that there is Xi and then everyone else who works for him. 

Deng Xiaoping’s position was frequently described as primus inter pares, or first among equals, those "equals" being other senior leaders who had survived Mao and The Cultural Revolution.

Xi Jinping is clearly trying to show that he is just Primus. 

Thanks for reading. 

The Essential Eight 

1. China's New Cabinet

Quick look at China's new cabinet lineup - Xinhua:

Vice premie…