China Communists eye leadership succession

Chinese Communist Party chief Hu Jintao opened a four-day meeting yesterday seeking to cement his grip on power, push his "harmonious society" platform to cope with rising social tension and possibly name a successor.

The plenary session of the 354-member Central Committee is poised to unveil the 11th Five-Year Plan - a new roadmap for the world's seventh-biggest economy that scraps a long-standing policy of faster growth in favour of improving social services and curbing widespread environmental devastation.

The closed-door plenum at the Soviet-era Jingxi Hotel in Beijing will be a test of whether Hu, 62, has fully consolidated power after replacing Jiang Zemin, 79, as party chief in 2002, state president in 2003 and military chief last year.

It is Hu's first plenum without his influential predecessor holding some form of office, although Jiang has stacked the party's upper echelons with his allies.

One focus will be on whether Hu can manoeuvre protege Li Keqiang, 50, who cut his teeth in Hu's power base, the China Youth League, into the decision-making Politburo, which currently has 24 full members and one alternate member.

Hu's trusted aide, Ling Jihua, may also move up the political ladder, the sources said. The results of the meeting are not expected to be made public until it closes on Tuesday.

Hu began to emerge from Jiang's shadow and start his long drive to consolidate power after ending a government cover-up of an outbreak of the SARS virus in 2003.

He has since sought to portray himself as a man of the people, championing the have-nots left behind by the country's economic boom. He has sought to boost government transparency and instill greater accountability.

At the same time, Hu has presided over a clampdown on the media and the Internet. Obstacles remain on Hu's path to consolidation, and a reshuffle at this plenum is not guaranteed.

Sources and analysts said Hu lacked the political clout to seize control of Shanghai, the political stronghold of Jiang, who still wields waning influence through proteges in the all-powerful nine-member Politburo Standing Committee.

Removing Chen Liangyu as Shanghai Party chief would be tantamount to a declaration of war, the sources said. Hu still needs co-operation from Jiang's men to deal with problems which have sparked unrest, including corruption and the widening gap between rich and poor.

With 74,000 protests across China in 2004, up from 58,000 in 2003, the leadership is struggling to reduce the high cost of health care, education and housing, and to slash the number of urban unemployed.

A top priority is to push Hu's calls for a "harmonious society" to better the lives of millions of poor farmers, migrant workers and others left behind as the economy surged, a key potential source of social instability.