CHINA:China's ruling Communist Party announced yesterday that a key leadership meeting would take place on October 15th, setting the stage for a congress where president and party chief Hu Jintao is expected to consolidate power through a leadership reshuffle.
After nearly five years in power, Mr Hu (64) will seek to tighten his grip at the congress, the 17th since the party was founded. He will also try to shake off the waning influence of his predecessor Jiang Zemin (81).
The five-yearly closed-door congress sets out the country's political priorities and will be closely watched to see if Mr Hu identifies a possible successor from among the younger cadres. He is expected to step down in 2012 after 10 years at the helm, although some commentators believe that his relative youth - he will be just 69 years old in five years - combined with the lack of a clear successor emerging, means he may stay on.
Working out exactly how successors are named is still a relatively inexact science.
Moreover, it is unclear whether Mr Hu will be able to anoint a protege as his fifth-generation successor, after Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, Jiang and Mr Hu, or whether he will be forced to make complex alliances within the party's myriad structure. Among the party figures tipped to join the Politburo's Standing Committee, and often named as possible successors, are Li Keqiang, party secretary from Liaoning province, Li Yuanchao, party secretary of Jiangsu province and Wang Yang, party secretary for the municipality of Chongqing.
Mr Hu will need to marshal a growing ideological rift between his reformers and the conservative old guard, which is unhappy at market reforms and the introduction of controversial laws, such as those protecting private property.
The congress normally lasts a week or 10 days.