China's Jiang ushers in new generation of leaders under Hu

Beijing (Reuters): Chinese Communist Party Chief Jiang Zemin ushered in a new generation of leaders under Hu Jintao on Thursday in the first orderly succession since the party took power in 1949.

But the new leadership, to be unveiled on Friday after months of secretive jockeying for power, will be packed with Jiang's allies, allowing him to pull strings from behind the curtain, sources close to the party said.

"Wherever Hu looks — up, down, left or right - he will see Jiang's men," said one Chinese political scientist, who declined to be identified.

More than 2,000 delegates burst into "thunderous" applause in the Soviet-style Great Hall of the People when the results of an election for a new Central Committee were announced, the official Xinhua news agency said.

Vice President Hu, 59, was the only member of the current seven-man leadership elected to the Central Committee, it said, indicating he would head the "fourth generation" of leaders after Chairman Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping and Jiang.

"With the congress election of a new Central Committee, the party's central collective leadership has realized a smooth transition from the old to the new," Jiang, 76, told the 16th congress before it closed to the strains of the Internationale.

In addition to Jiang, the five other ageing party chieftains not on the new Central Committee included parliament chief Li Peng and Premier Zhu Rongji, who will leave their government posts in March.

Only its members can be on the Politburo Standing Committee — the pinnacle of power which now has seven seats — or be general secretary.

"More than 2,100 delegates to the congress showed respect and appreciation to 76-year-old Jiang and his colleagues for the breadth of their political vision and sterling integrity," Xinhua said.

Previous transitions have been tainted by purges, plots and bloodshed — including Jiang's appointment as party chief after the crackdown on protests around Tiananmen Square in 1989.

The new Standing Committee will parade out from behind a screen in the Great Hall on Friday — the climax of a tense drama in which almost all the action has taken place off stage.

The new lineup, hammered out by retiring leaders, is a fiercely guarded secret and the subject of months of speculation by party members, China analysts and diplomats alike.

"We won't know for sure until we see who comes out and in what order," said one Chinese political scientist. "Leadership succession is more institutionalized than it used to be, but still very opaque."

Veteran China watchers say almost nobody has accurately forecast a Chinese leadership succession yet.

But the consensus among Chinese sources with close party links is that Jiang, who steps down as president in March, has shoe-horned at least four key allies into the new Standing Committee.

The body could also be expanded to nine, with six people from his camp, they say.

Jiang has secured a seat for his main protege and hatchet man, Zeng Qinghong, 63, who stepped down as head of the party's organization department last month, they say.

Jiang's hand was also strengthened when the congress approved a plan to write his "Three Represents" political theory into the party constitution, putting him on a symbolic plane with Mao and Deng, whose theories are also enshrined in the charter.

The theory says the party represents advanced productive forces, advanced culture and the majority of the Chinese people. It broadening the party's support base of workers and peasants to private entrepreneurs and other social strata.

Vice Premier Wen Jiabao, 60, is sure to join the Standing Committee, backed by Premier Zhu Rongji, 74, and is expected to take over the reins of Asia's fastest growing economy next year.

Parliament chief Li Peng, 74, has negotiated a seat for his protege, internal security chief Luo Gan, 67, who is expected to take over the party's corruption watchdog.

The other candidates for the Standing Committee, whether it is seven or nine, all have close links to Jiang — either through personal friendship or as part of a "Shanghai Gang' of natives or former officials from China's financial center.