CHINA:China gave the first signals about its next leadership line-up yesterday with the appointment of likely heir apparent Mr Hu Jintao as head organiser of the vital 16th Communist Party Congress.
Mr Hu will be secretary general of the Congress Presidium, a body which chairs the event beginning this morning, party spokesman Mr Ji Bingxuan said, fuelling expectations that Mr Hu will succeed President Jiang Zemin as party chief.
But significantly, one of Mr Hu's four deputy secretary-generals will be Mr Zeng Qinghong, known as the closest ally of Mr Jiang.
The President is thought to be keen to maintain influence even after his likely retirement.
Mr Ji also announced that the congress will last for seven days until November 14th.
The congress is expected to usher in China's first wholesale leadership changes in more than a decade, which will most likely be revealed the day after it finishes.
The presidium, which Mr Hu heads for the duration of the congress, organises reports and handles electoral procedures before being disbanded when the gathering ends.
Mr Zeng's appointment as one of four deputy secretary-generals was seen by analysts as a sign that President Jiang is winning his political battles.
Mr Jiang (76), who is tipped to also hand over the state presidency to Mr Hu (59) next spring, is widely rumoured to be trying to pack allies on to key party committees to ensure his influence after he retires.
The naming of Mr Hu, with Mr Zeng closely behind him, was a clear hint of the shape of things to come, experts said.
"This shows Hu's status as the core of leadership is clear, quite confirmed," said Mr Kou Chien-wen, assistant research fellow of the Institute of International Relations from the National Chengchi University in Taiwan.
Mr Joseph Cheng, a China-watcher at the City University of Hong Kong, said Mr Zeng's appointment "is an implication he will have more important positions to come."
This heightened speculation that Mr Zeng was likely to be elevated to the party's Politburo Standing Committee, China's top leadership body, and could even be named Mr Hu's deputy, Mr Cheng said.
"It may be Zeng Qinghong who runs the party machinery and [IF SO)]he'll promote a lot of Jiang's protégés. We'll have to see what role Hu will play," he said.
However, none of these wranglings will be publicly discussed at the congress, which will be used by Beijing as a global showcase for a nation that is rapidly reforming economically, if not in politics.
Among other tasks, the congress will "seek truth from facts, keep up with the times, make innovations in a pioneering spirit and rally to create a new situation in advancing the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics," spokesman Mr Ji said.
A new addition to these "Chinese characteristics" at the congress is likely to be a landmark amendment to the party constitution, approving Mr Jiang's radical proposal to allow capitalists into its ranks.
The suggestion - aimed at protecting the relevance of the party in a rapidly modernising society - has been widely touted in the state-directed propaganda in recent months.
Meanwhile the 2,114 delegates, who are expected to formally rubber-stamp these changes, were holed up inside their hotels, where they have been confined by tough new security measures.
"The meeting will open under very good security, and everything will go according to plan," predicted Mr Bao Tong, who was the highest-ranking official jailed after the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests.