Former Chinese president Hu Jintao was unexpectedly led out of Saturday's closing ceremony of the, AFP journalists on the scene witnessed.
The frail-looking former leader, aged 79, initially seemed reluctant to leave the front row of Politburo Standing Committee members in Beijing's Great Hall of the People, where he was sitting next to President Xi Jinping.
He had brief exchanges with Xi and Premier Li Keqiang after stewards spoke with him. A steward, holding Hu's arm, led the former president out.
His departure was not explained.
He retired in 2013, and appeared at last Sunday's Congress opening with his hair completely grey.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (left) has a word with an official before former president Hu Jintao (right) was led out of the National Congress of the Communist Party of China. Source: Getty / Lintao Zhang
President Xi delivers 'dare to struggle' speech
The five-yearly Communist Party Congress wrapped up with President Xi Jinping set to emerge from the event as leader for an unprecedented third term.
President Xi delivered a speech in one of the final events of the week-long gathering at Beijing's Great Hall of the People.
"Dare to struggle, dare to win, bury your heads and work hard. Be determined to keep forging ahead," he told the party faithful.
His speech ended a week of largely rubber-stamp meetings among 2,300 party delegates, who were selected by the party to approve a reshuffle of its leadership.
The new Central Committee of around 200 senior Party officials was elected shortly after 11 am Saturday, state media agency Xinhua reported, without disclosing a full list of members.
Delegates also voted to endorse Xi's "work report" delivered at the Congress's opening last Sunday and rubber-stamped a resolution on the Party's constitution.
President Xi is now widely expected to be unveiled as general secretary on Sunday, shortly after the first meeting of the new Central Committee.
This will allow Xi to sail through to a third term as Chinese president, due to be announced during the government's annual legislative sessions in March.
President Xi previously abolished the presidential two-term limit in 2018, paving the way for him to rule indefinitely.
The weekend will also see the new Central Committee approve a reshuffled 25-member Politburo, as well as a Politburo Standing Committee -- China's apex of power -- of around seven people, which analysts expect to be stacked with Xi allies.
At Sunday's Congress opening ceremony, Xi delivered a 105-minute speech lauding the party's achievements and glossing over domestic problems such as the stalling economy and the damage wrought by his harsh zero-Covid policy.
Heavy on ideological rhetoric and light on policy, a defiant Xi also urged Communist Party members to steel themselves against numerous challenges including a hardening geopolitical climate.
"We must ... be ready to withstand high winds, choppy waters and even dangerous storms," he said.
"Confronted with drastic changes in the international landscape, especially external attempts to blackmail, contain, (and) blockade... China, we have put our national interests first."
Security was also a main focus of the speech, in which Xi lauded Hong Kong's transition from "chaos to governance" and vowed to "never commit to abandoning the use of force" to seize the self-ruled island of Taiwan.
President Xi's power grab
The Congress was set to further cement President Xi's position as China's most powerful leader since Mao Zedong, with analysts predicting he was virtually certain to be reappointed for a third term in power.
The president's work report "is a carefully scripted drama through which the power of the Party, its leader, and its ideas are meant to be elevated and amplified", wrote David Bandurski, editor of the University of Hong Kong's China Media Project.
But some key questions remain unresolved, including whether Xi, 69, will appoint a potential successor to the Politburo Standing Committee and whether a pithier form of his signature political philosophy will be enshrined in the charter of the 96-million-strong party.
The latter would make Xi Jinping Thought "the latest, 21st-century rendition of Marxism (and) the state ideology of China", said Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China Institute at the University of London.
"Xi's power will be akin to that of the dictator of China, and there will be next to no scope for anyone to advise him to attempt course correction," Tsang told AFP.
"This will increase the risk of policy mistakes being made, as everything will depend on Xi getting it right."
