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China Communists narrow in on leadership
2007-10-20
Delegates to a pivotal Communist Party congress whittled down a list of candidates for senior committee assignments on Saturday, a prelude to selecting China's new leadership. The state-run Xinhua News Agency reported that a 237-member panel led by President Hu Jintao and other senior leaders approved a final list of candidates after more than two days of consultations with the 2,200 rank-and-file delegates to the congress. On Sunday, the months of politicking over senior posts will near its end when the delegates vote for a Central Committee that will in turn select the new leadership lineup to run the country. Names on the list and even the final number of candidates were not released to the public. The Central Committee currently has 198 members. Though Hu is all but certain to be given a second five-year term as party chief, whether he can maneuver allies into top spots will determine how free a hand he will have in decision-making. Xinhua said that once chosen, the new Central Committee would hold its first meeting on Monday to select its Politburo, which currently has 24 members, along with the Politburo Standing Committee, the apex of power that has nine slots. Speculation has swirled for months over who will receive seats on the top body, with Hu's favorite, Li Keqiang, encountering resistance from other party leaders who fear giving the president too much sway. The 52-year-old Li, party head of the industrial province of Liaoning, is seen as Hu's choice of successor but faces competition for the title from Xi Jinping, the son of a communist revolution veteran, who was appointed this year to head the financial powerhouse of Shanghai. The Politburo Standing Committee was expanded to nine seats at the last congress in 2002, although its size is fluid. All through the past week in their brief encounters with the media, presumed top contenders parried questions about their pending promotions as unfounded speculation. Entry to the Central Committee and other top bodies is largely predetermined by the party's most influential politicians through the candidate selection progress, although Hu and other leaders like to tout the small degree of competition for places as a sign of what they call growing "intraparty democracy."
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