BEIJING • More than 370 party cadres have gathered this week at a hotel in western Beijing where top leaders will discuss personnel changes in the run-up to China's leadership reshuffle next year.
Most of the participants are members of the elite Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party. But also invited are 12 party bosses and provincial chiefs who are tipped to advance to the Communist Party's inner circle, reported South China Morning Post.
They are the party bosses of Anhui, Yunnan and Tibet, and nine provincial heads from Shanghai, Tianjin, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Jiangxi, Hubei, Hainan, Guizhou and Xinjiang.
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NOT MEMBERS, BUT ATTENDING MEETING
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Yunnan Governor and party secretary Chen Hao -
Jiangxi Governor Liu Qi -
Tibet party chief Wu Yingjie -
Shanghai Mayor Yang Xiong -
Anhui party chief Li Jinbin -
Acting Tianjin Mayor Wang Dongfeng
They are not members of the Central Committee, but have been invited to attend the sixth plenary session of the Central Committee.
China watchers told Hong Kong's Wen Wei Po these 12 are likely to be promoted into the Central Committee at next year's 19th Party Congress. Party cadres must be full members of the Central Committee before they can be appointed to the next level Politburo.
Several of the new faces worked closely with President Xi Jinping when he was the party chief in Shanghai and Zhejiang, reported the Post. Mr Chen Hao, Yunnan's Governor and party secretary, for instance, worked alongside President Xi for a few months when Mr Xi was Shanghai's party chief.
Jiangxi Governor Liu Qi worked in Zhejiang from 1974 before being transferred to Jiangxi in February. Mr Xi was Zhejiang party secretary from 2002 to 2007.
The closed-door plenum held at the military-run Jingxi Hotel will also result in several alternate members of the Central Committee taking up full membership.
Four full members of the Central Committee under internal investigation for alleged violations of discipline are expected to be formally expelled from the party when the plenum ends on Thursday.
The four are former Fujian governor Su Shulin; former Liaoning party boss Wang Min; General Tian Xiusi, former political commissar of the People's Liberation Army's Air Force; and Tianjin's former mayor Huang Xingguo.
Their positions are expected to be filled by alternate members, the Chinese Academy of Engineering's deputy head Zhao Xiangeng; Ningxia chairwoman Xian Hui; the Finance Ministry's top graft-buster Mo Jiancheng; and Ningxia's deputy party chief Cui Bo.
