The 20th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party wrapped up its weeklong, twice-a-decade meeting over the weekend with Chinese President Xi Jinping securing his third five-year term.

"The third term was not a surprise at all [but] the extent to which he consolidated his power was," Michael Cunningham, a research fellow at The Heritage Foundation, says of Xi's grip on the Chinese Communist Party. (The Daily Signal is Heritage’s multimedia news organization.)

Xi "managed to get to force people to retire prematurely who were not his proteges and to replace them with proteges, his own handpicked people," Cunningham says. "So now he controls essentially the entire Politburo Standing Committee. There are very few checks on his power now."

Rep. Michael Waltz, R-Fla., warned on "Fox News Sunday" that Xi "has become the most powerful Chinese dictator since Mao."

"The amount of power consolidation that [Xi] accomplished this time, it really shows that ... there are very few checks to his power now," Cunningham says, adding:

It's hard to say for sure what extent that power will be until we see it in action, but just based on the past 10 years, we've seen that even without controlling the entire leadership lineup as he does now, he managed to push through his preferred policies.

Cunningham joins "The Daily Signal Podcast" to discuss what the U.S. should expect during Xi's third term, how Taiwan will be affected, and the state of U.S.-China relations.

Video of former Chinese President Hu Jintao: https://twitter.com/dansoncj/status/1583663702896967680?s=20&t=cl9y4jE8S3VU50EddnKoTg]

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