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New PRC Politburo lineup a challenge to Hu, sources say

After intensive bargaining, the Chinese Communist Party has approved a new leadership lineup that denies President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) the decisive consolidation of power that his supporters hoped would allow him to govern more assertively in his final five-year term as China's top leader.

The party's Central Committee agreed to elevate four senior officials to the ruling Politburo Standing Committee, but only one of them -- Li Keqiang (李克強) the party secretary of Liaoning Province -- traces his rise in the hierarchy to Hu's patronage, sources told about the results of a Central Committee meeting said on Friday.

Xi Jinping (習近平), the party boss of Shanghai, will also join the Standing Committee. He will outrank Li and become the most likely successor to Hu as party chief, head of state and top military official in 2012, the sources said.

Xi, whose father was a senior party official under Mao Zedong (毛澤東), is viewed as a compromise choice, acceptable to Hu but also to his retired predecessor as top leader, Jiang Zemin (江澤民), who party officials say exercised broad sway over the reshuffling.

Two other new members of the Standing Committee, He Guoqiang (賀國強), a party organization official, and Zhou Yongkang (周永康), China's top law enforcement officer, are widely viewed as close allies of Chinese Vice President Zeng Qinghong (曾慶紅), who will step down from the Standing Committee.

Personnel shifts in the ruling party are decided in secret and the final leadership lineup will not be made public until the conclusion of a party congress, which convenes tomorrow.

In the past, top leaders have continued to bargain and make changes in the hierarchy even after the Central Committee approves a slate of candidates.

The Central Committee issued a public statement on Friday that offered no information about personnel decisions, but conferred lavish praise on Hu.

Under Hu, the party "vanquished all kinds of hardship and dangers and advanced the work of the party and government to achieve major new successes," the statement said.

The committee also said the party would amend its Constitution. That suggests that Hu's concept of "scientific development" to promote balanced and sustainable development, will be enshrined in the Constitution.
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