China’s New Leaders—the Lineup
The Party Secretary of Guangdong, who belongs to the Youth League group, has spoken of the need for reform — accepting lower growth for rich provinces like his, moving up the value chain and introducing social and environmental measures.
The only member of the top echelon who has worked in a factory he is seen by some as harming his chances of joining the Standing Committee by having spoken out too much.
Li Yuanchao
As head of the Party Organization Department, which oversees all CCP-connected appointments, he is a powerful figure. A princeling by birth, he is also a member of the Communist Youth League grouping.
His ascent from running Jiangsu province, where he introduced reforms to increase official accountability, was fathered by Hu Jintao, to whom he owes hierarchical loyalty.
He is also seen as one of the Fifth-Generation figures closest to Wen Jiabao's calls for political reform, even though he has been more circumspect in speaking out.
Zhang Dejiang
A Vice Premier, he is seen as a safe pair of hands. He was sent to take over Chongqing after the fall of Bo Xilai. A princeling as the son of a major general, he has been
favoured by Jiang Zemin and is seen as a solid administrator and Party stalwart.
(Read more: China at a Turning Point as New Leadership Takes Over)
Yu Zhengsheng
Party Secretary of Shanghai since 2007, he has a complex family history. His great-uncle was a defence minister under the Nationalists; his father was the first husband of Jiang Qing, who later married Mao Zedong. His brother, a state security official, defected to the US and his wife is the daughter of a First-Generation major-general.
Yu himself rose under the patronage of Deng Xiaoping and Jiang from the 1980s onwards, running several big cities before becoming Construction Minister in 1998 and joining the wider Politburo in 2002.
Zhang Gaoli
Communist Party Secretary of the big port city of Tianjin, he is another Jiang protégé.
He presided over the growth of Shenzhen in the 1990s before being promoted to Party Secretary of Shandong.
Then, under Hu Jintao, he moved to the key job of Party Secretary of Tianjin which, with its 13 million inhabitants, is a major development zone intended to re-invigorate the Bohai Bay area.
Liu Yandong
