President Hu Jintao is all set to retain leadership of the ruling Communist Party of China at the 17th Party Congress, even as a new generation of young leaders is expected to be promoted to key positions, analysts said on Sunday.
“During this National Congress, we may not change the top-level leader and General Secretary and half of the Standing Committee members will remain,” a senior CPC official told PTI here.
‘New blood’
“There will be some new blood in the Politburo Standing Committee and in the Central Committee, which will also be significant for the Party,” he said without divulging details of the personnel changes to be announced at the end of the week-long, and mostly in-camera meetings.
Over 2,200 delegates from across the country, representing 73 million CPC members, have descended in Beijing and would gather on Monday at the Great Hall of the People for the start of the once-every-five years conclave to decide on the new Chinese leadership till 2012 and key policy issues.
Analysts say it is a foregone conclusion that the faces at the very top of the Chinese leadership are unlikely to change this time with Hu (64) and Premier Wen Jiabao (65) almost certain to rule the world’s most populous and booming nation for another five years.
But below them, a new generation of young leaders will be promoted into key positions, who would then be groomed to succeed Hu and Wen so that they could assume power at the 18th National Congress to be held in 2012, analysts said.
Hu and his still-powerful predecessor, Jiang Zemin have to reach a consensus on who should enter the all-powerful decision-making body, the Politburo Standing Committee (PSC) of the CPC and the leadership line-up.
Sacking rivals
Hu, who assumed the top Party post in 2002, has steadily consolidated his grip on the party apparatus in recent years by co-opting or sacking political rivals allied with Jiang, the most compelling case being that of the previous Shanghai party boss, Chen Liangyu, who is awaiting trial in the worst social security funds scandal to hit China.
