China Leadership Transition | featured news

...Just as Vice President Xi Jinping, 59, was named at the just-ended Communist Party Congress to replace President Hu Jintao, someone in the next generation of officials will likely replace Xi 10 years from now. And leading the pack, according to some party insiders and experts, is a man widely known as “Little Hu.”

China’s new leader, Xi Jinping, impressed many people with a plain-spoken promise to address problems in the country’s ruling party on Thursday, but his new leadership team offered few clues as to a clear shift in direction.

President Hu Jintao gave his final speech as head of China’s Communist Party on Wednesday, paving the way for a new generation of leaders that will be unveiled Thursday morning.

The man in line to oversee China's massive but rapidly slowing economy for the coming decade speaks English and comes from a generation of politicians schooled during a time of greater openness to liberal Western ideas than their predecessors....

Li Keqiang, the man slated to become China’s next premier, is described by several former classmates and associates as a cautious political climber who moved up slowly through the Communist Party’s bureaucracy while quietly maintaining friendships with pro-democracy advocates.

The specter of corruption continued to hound China’s leaders Friday, the second day of a week-long Communist Party congress at which the country’s next generation of top leaders are expected to be unveiled.