CHINA: China's senior Communist leader, Mr Jiang Zemin, is expected to step down from power at the party congress in Beijing today after forcing a popular rival to leave the stage with him.
Mr Li Ruihuan, the target of Mr Jiang's manoeuvre, is the only top leader who can claim a genuine working-class background in the party today and the only significant politician who has refused to subscribe wholeheartedly to the President's philosophy. His departure clears the way for Mr Jiang's chosen successor, Mr Hu Jintao.
Delegates attending the congress confirmed yesterday that six of the seven most senior figures would not be candidates for the party's new central committee, to be chosen today, and would therefore no longer lead the party. They include Mr Li, who had been expected to stay on, unlike Mr Jiang and his other colleagues.
This week Mr Li was the only leader to acknowledge popular dissatisfaction with the party, warning that top leaders should "never divorce themselves from the people".
Clearly referring to grassroots concerns about unemployment, corruption and the widening gap between rich and poor, he said that the party should not "ignore, despise or evade these problems".
Mr Jiang and four other leaders, including the former premier Mr Li Peng - the man held most responsible for the 1989 Beijing massacre - were due to step down on the understanding that senior figures older than 70 should not stand for re-election.
All belong to the current seven-person standing committee - the elite core of the ruling party politburo - but cannot be re-elected if they are not members of the new central committee.
At 68, Mr Li Ruihuan is free, in theory, to continue in high office. It was widely believed he would replace Mr Li Peng next year as chairman of the National People's Congress (NPC) - China's parliament.
The only surviving standing committee member, the 59-year-old Vice-President, Mr Hu, should now succeed Mr Jiang as party general secretary.
During the summer Mr Jiang's supporters floated the idea that he might after all stay on as party leader in spite of the agreed age limit. The implication was that the only way to persuade Mr Jiang to step down after all would be for everyone else to go quietly too - including Li Ruihuan.
This manoeuvre may also have overcome any temptation by the hardline Li Peng to try to hang on to power too. - (Guardian Service)