Beijing (AsiaNews) – Vice-President Xi Jinping should become vice-chairman of the party's Central Military Commission, a key step in the succession process to become the nation's next top leader. The appointment will take place at the upcoming plenum of the party’s central committee in Beijing.
If the promotion is confirmed, Xi, like China’s last four leaders, will also automatically succeed President Hu Jintao as Communist Party chief in autumn 2012 and as president in the spring of 2013.
Taking on a military role is not a fundamental prerequisite to rise to the top, but promotion to a leading military post clears the way for the succession.
"If Xi rises through the ranks according to schedule, it could reduce worries about instability among the secretive inner circles of the Communist Party, which has no transparent mechanism for choosing its leaders," said Zhang Ming, a political science professor at Renmin University.
In any case, Hu's top protégé, Li Keqiang, appears to be out of the race, defeated in a high-profile succession contest at the 17th party congress in 2007. Li, party boss of the north-eastern province of Liaoning, was also seen as a front runner to replace Hu in 2012.
However, Xi’s appointment might not symbolic significant. "In stark contrast, Xi's endorsement has much less legitimacy than that of Hu, who was appointed by the country's former paramount leader, Deng Xiaoping" rather than the plenum, said Jin Zhong, editor of Hong Kong-based Open Magazine.