China’s Communist party is downsizing its youth division, in a blow to a powerful bureaucratic faction whose members include premier Li Keqiang. According to the Financial Times, the defanging of the 87m-Communist Youth League, which wielded greatest influence under previous Chinese president Hu Jintao, is another victory for Chinese President Xi Jinping, who has been consolidating power within the party and the military since he took office more than three years ago. It comes amid talk in Beijing’s political circles of a rift between Mr. Xi and Mr. Li, as the former moves to increase his influence over economic policy. Mr. Li began his political career within the Youth League, where he served as first secretary in the 1990s.
