Ling Jihua
Three months later, Li was also named Secretary of the Work Committee for Organs Directly Reporting to the Central Committee (). Regarded as a "rising star", Li was elected to the Politburo of the Communist Party of China at the 18th Party Congress held in November 2012, which was unusual for a General Office chief (Ling Jihua, for example, was not a member of the Politburo), signalling that Li would hold significant clout under Xi Jinping's administration. Additionally, as was customary of the general office chief, Li was also named a Secretary of the Central Secretariat. In 2013, Li was also named chief of the General Office of the newly formed National Security Commission.