Leadership race veiled in secrecy

By Michael Bristow
BBC News, Beijing

2,200 delegates will elect a new central committee by secret ballot

Senior Chinese officials are refusing to reveal who is in the running for the country's top political jobs.

They are also saying little about the backroom deliberations currently taking place to select China's next leaders.

The discussions are taking place during the Chinese Communist Party's 17th congress in Beijing.

The result will be the promotion of a group of younger officials, one of whom is eventually expected to take over as the country's next president.

Ouyang Song, deputy head of the party's organisation department, had few details to reveal when the BBC asked about the selection process.

"You have asked a string of interesting questions. I'm sure all the people in this hall take an enormous interest in these questions," he said at a press conference.

"I am more than happy to address your questions, but maybe my answer will be disappointing," he added.

Candidates approved

What he did say was that the 2,200 congress delegates currently meeting in Beijing will elect the party's new central committee.

A list of candidates has just been approved.

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That election will be carried out by secret ballot, where there will be slightly more candidates than positions available, Mr Ouyang said.

But he declined to reveal the exact proportion of candidates to posts.

The central committee will in turn elect the politburo and its standing committee, the highest decision-making body in China.

The county's next president, due to take over in 2012, will almost certainly be drawn from this new politburo line-up.

Secret ballot

Mr Ouyang said the politburo and its standing committee would also be elected by secret ballot, but gave no other details about the process.

President Hu Jintao, also the party's general secretary, says China needs a more transparent political system.

In a keynote speech to mark the opening of the congress on Monday, he mentioned the word 'democracy' 60 times.

But, as the current congress deliberations reveal, it remains unclear how that stated aim will work in practice.

Xi Jinping (L) and Li Keqiang are front-runners for senior positions

The selection of Chinese leaders has always been an opaque process about which little is known by those outside the highest echelons of the party.

But that has not stopped fevered speculation in recent weeks over who will join the next crop of leaders.

Most of that speculation has centred on Shanghai party chief Xi Jinping and his counterpart in Liaoning Province, Li Keqiang.

But China, and the rest of the world, will have to wait until the week-long congress ends to find out if they make it to the top.