On October 24, stocks in Hong Kong slumped and China's currency, the yuan, weakened against the US dollar over heightened concerns that Xi Jinping will continue with his ideology-driven policies at the cost of economic growth. China released a set of economic figures which had been postponed from the previous week, one day after Xi named party loyalist Li Qiang as the new second-in-command.

The benchmark Hang Seng index fell by more than 6% as Hong Kong-listed shares in Chinese technology giants Alibaba and Tencent plunged. In mainland China, the Shanghai Composite index closed 2% lower, reports BBC News.

Meanwhile, official figures showed that China's economy grew 3.9% in the July to September quarter from the same time last year, beating estimates.

It marked a strong bounce back from the 0.4% growth seen for the previous three months, when Shanghai was in lockdown. However, while the figures may seem high compared to most Western economies, they are far below the rate of expansion China has seen for decades and still some way off the 5.5% 2022 target set in March.

Since then, the Politburo - the ruling Chinese Communist Party's top policy-making body - has signaled that it may miss that target, after major cities were put into full or partial lockdowns.
Some observers say Mr Xi's picks for the Politburo Standing Committee - China's equivalent of a presidential cabinet - showed that he prizes loyalty over expertise and experience.