Chinese Communist Party Leaders Step Down

BEIJING, Oct. 21 -- The Chinese Communist Party announced Sunday that three of its most powerful leaders were retiring, making way for a new generation including the eventual successor of President Hu Jintao as head of the world's most populous nation.

The announcement, on the official New China News Agency, marked the latest step in a carefully orchestrated sequence of decisions at the party's week-long 17th National Congress, designed to reshuffle China's top leadership in a way that enhances Hu's authority and maneuvers his favorites into positions of authority.

A woman argues with a policeman as another policeman records video of the incident on a mobile phone, near Beijing's Tiananmen Square, on the fifth day of the ongoing 17th Communist Party Congress, Friday Oct. 19, 2007. Security is tight as the congress, which ends Sunday, continues behind closed doors. Communist Party leaders have kept out of the public eye this week in a possible sign of deepening closed-door deliberations at the congress over appointments that will determine China's leadership and influence policy-making for the next five years. (AP Photo/Greg Baker) (Greg Baker - AP)

In another gesture designed to emphasize Hu's pre-eminence, the 2,200-member congress altered the party constitution Sunday to include mention of "scientific development," Hu's main contribution to Marxist doctrine. The move constituted party-wide endorsement of Hu's contention that the Chinese Communist Party should also stress social welfare and environmental protection as it pushes ahead with economic growth.

The party's new Central Committee, a 204-member ruling body that was acclaimed Sunday, the final day of the congress, does not include Zeng Qinghong, 68; Wu Guanzheng, 69, and Luo Gan, 72, according the official agency. The three were not only members of the outgoing Central Committee but also of its Politburo and nine-man Poliburo Standing Committee, the pinnacle of power in China's Communist system.

The new Central Committee, in its first meeting scheduled Monday, will designate a new 220-member Politburo and Standing Committee. Those chosen to take the places vacated by Zeng, Wu and Luo will be considered the prime candidates to become the new leaders of China at the end of Hu's second term in five years. A fourth new member of the Standing Committee likely will be designated to replace Huang Ju, the economic czar who died in June.

Among the likely newcomers, Li Keqiang, 52, party secretary of Liaoning province, and Xi Jinping, 54, party secretary of Shanghai, have been singled out as the best placed to end up as Hu's successor in 2012. As a result, observers will focus Monday on where each stands in the committee hierarchy, looking for signals about which is heir-apparent. But analysts cautioned that, wherever Li and Xi line up in seniority now, things could change over the next five years in the bureaucratic elbowing likely to play out behind the walls of Zhongnanhai, the leadership compound.

Zeng, a former rocket scientist who was also vice president, earned a reputation as a master of such maneuvering in the party bureaucracy during his long career. The son of a Communist revolutionary leader, he was identified as a follower of Jiang Zemin, Hu's predecessor as president and party secretary. But he nevertheless forged a smooth working relationship with Hu and helped him cement his hold on power over the five years of his first term.

Wu was in charge of party discipline, a post that made him responsible for fighting the corruption that has eroded the party since the economy was liberalized over the past three decades.

Luo, whose oversized glasses gave him a bookish look, was in charge of law enforcement and oversaw China's widely feared security services, in particular the Public Security Bureau.

The three retirees were saluted by delegates to the congress for the "breadth of their political vision and sterling integrity," the New China News Agency reported.

Other figures not included in the new Central Committee are Vice Premier Wu Yi, the only woman on the outgoing Politburo and a frequent contact for U.S. officials; Defense Minister Cao Gangchuan, and Vice Premier Zeng Peiyan, who handled industrial policies.

Five of the outgoing Standing Committee's nine members remained in place. In order of seniority, they are Hu, 64, who is party leader as well as president; Wu Bangguo, who runs the People's National Congress, or legislature; Wen Jiabao, who is Hu's premier; Jia Qinglin, who runs the People's Consultative Conference, a party outreach assembly; and Li Changchun, who manages party propaganda and censorship.

Wu, 66, Jia, 67, and Li, 63, have long been considered allies of Jiang, who in retirement retains considerable influence in the party bureaucracy. The decision to keep them on the Standing Committee reflected the flexibility and conciliation that has been a hallmark of Hu's career. It also demonstrated the degree to which -- in contrast to the days of Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping -- transfer of power in China has become a question of negotiations and alliances rather than simple designation of a successor by an all-powerful chieftain.

Jia's continuing service in particular drew attention. In addition to his identification with Jiang, he was party secretary of Fujian province in the 1990s during a multi-million-dollar smuggling scandal. Jia's wife, Lin Youfang, rang the province's main state-run import-export company at the time, leading some Chinese officials to question whether Jia himself might have been involved.

At a time when the party has proclaimed a nationwide battle against corruption, Jia's presence among the party's most senior leaders sends the wrong signal, Chinese analysts have suggested.