BEIJING: China's ruling Communist Party has announced a reshuffle to a key post,
state press said Sunday, a move widely seen as ushering in a once-a-decade
leadership transition later this year.
Li Zhanshu, 62, former head of
the southwest province of Guizhou, was on Saturday named to head the party's
powerful Politburo general office, the People's Daily reported, a job that puts
Li in charge of the party's day-to-day workings.
Li replaces Ling Jihua, outgoing
President Hu Jintao's top aide, who has been named to head the party's United
Front Work Department, the paper said.
As part of the leadership
transition, Hu will step down as the party's general secretary -- the top party
post -- at a Party Congress expected to take place in the coming weeks and
resign from the presidency at a parliamentary meeting next March, ending his 10
years as China's top leader.
Current Vice President Xi Jinping
is slated to replace Hu in both posts.
"The new guy has good
relations with Hu Jintao and also has ties with the new incoming leader,"
Bill Bishop, a Beijing-based consultant and writer of the Sinocism China
Newsletter, told AFP.
"He will be an extremely
influential person in Beijing, the party general secretary needs someone like
this who is competent and can be trusted."
"More importantly this is
really an indication that things are on track and that the next Party Congress
is reasonably imminent."
No dates for the congress have
been announced, but it is widely expected to take place next month.
China's authoritarian politics
largely take place in secret.
Analysts believe the ongoing
transition has been badly hampered by the ouster of charismatic politician Bo
Xilai, whose wife was given a suspended death sentence last month for the
murder of British businessman Neil Heywood.
Before the murder scandal broke
in February this year, Bo had been seen as a candidate for promotion to China's
top ruling body, the party's Politburo Standing Committee.
- AFP/wm
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