China Announces Senior Party Roles Ahead of Leadership Change - Businessweek

China appointed former Guizhou Party Secretary Li Zhanshu to replace Ling Jihua as head of the Communist Party’s General Office as the nation prepares for a once-in-a-decade leadership transition.

Ling takes over the United Front Department, which handles relations with non-party organizations and figures including the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader. The changes were announced late yesterday by the official Xinhua News Agency.

China’s Communist Party is gearing up for its once-a-decade congress that will decide on a new generation of leaders to rule the world’s most-populous nation. While the party has said that 2,270 delegates will attend the meeting, the date has not been announced.

Vice President Xi Jinping, 59, is forecast to take over from President Hu Jintao and head the 82 million-member Communist Party. Vice Premier Li Keqiang, 57, is in line to replace Wen Jiabao as premier.

The General Office is responsible for security and logistics for China’s top leaders. Former heads include Premier Wen Jiabao and former Vice President Zeng Qinghong.

Li Zhanshu, 62, has been a provincial leader in Hebei, Shaanxi, Heilongjiang and most recently Guizhou where he was party secretary, according to his official biography. He was the leader of Wuji county in Hebei from 1983 to 1985. Vice President Xi’s official resume shows he was party secretary of neighboring Zhengding county during that period.

Guizhou, in western China, is the nation’s poorest province, according to National Bureau of Statistics data. Fixed-asset investment in the first half of the year rose 60 percent, Guizhou government data show, almost three times the national level. The province said in July it was considering more than 2,300 projects involving total investment of 3 trillion yuan ($472 billion) related to eco-tourism.

Li “made great contributions” to Guizhou’s economic development, Zhang Jinan, deputy director of the party’s Organization Department, which decides on promotions and personnel changes, was quoted as saying by the Guizhou Daily in July.

Like Xi, Li comes from a revolutionary family, albeit lower-profile. More than 20 members of Li’s family fought in wars against Chiang Kai-Shek’s Nationalists and Japan, according to a 2008 Xinhua report. Li’s great uncle, Li Zaiwen, was deputy governor of Shandong province during the 1960s.

Ling will replace Du Qinglin, who has reached retirement age, according to Xinhua. Ling, 55, an ally of President Hu Jintao, remains a member of the Secretariat of the Party’s central committee, which runs the day-to-day affairs of the Politburo and its Standing Committee, the highest ruling body.

Searches for Li Zhanshu and Ling Jihua in Chinese on China’s Twitter-like microblogging service Sina Weibo come up empty and display a message saying that based on relevant laws, regulations and policies, the results can’t be displayed.

--Fan Wenxin. Editors: Nerys Avery, Jim McDonald

To contact Bloomberg news staff on this story: Wenxin Fan in Shanghai at wfan19@bloomberg.net;

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Paul Tighe at ptighe@bloomberg.net