China newly formed Central Committee includes 11 women

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Eleven women have secured seats in the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), according to the official list of newly-appointed members.  

The new committee of the party includes 205 members, with women making up only 5.36% of the total.

The previous 204-member committee had only 10 women or 4.9%.  

Over the past years, women in China have been gaining a much more prominent role in the country's cultural, social, and economic spheres, but the political scene is still largely dominated by men.

China's Congress is one of the most important events in China's political life, during which the results of the last five years are summed up and the plans for the country's future are drawn up.

It is held once every five years and concluded with amendments to the party's constitution bolstering the CCP's ranks and guiding the role of the party's ideology.

This comes around a month after unconfirmed media reports suggested that the People's Liberation Army was plotting a coup in Beijing aimed at toppling the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party during the Golden Week of public holidays that comes ahead of China's National Day on October 1.

There was no notable or visible police presence in Beijing at that time, a Sputnik reporter said amid reports and rumors on social media suggesting that a coup plot was taking place in China.

The reports come days after Chinese President Xi Jinping praised the Chinese armed forces, urging for the better use of successful experience in the reform of national defense and the armed forces and striving for new horizons for strengthening the armed forces through reform.

Xi also urged high-ranking representatives of China’s Central Military Commission (CMC), the People’s Armed Police Force, and military academics to mobilize efforts into implementing reform tasks and manage future reforms to provide a strong impetus for achieving the goal set for the centenary of the People's Liberation Army.