Vice-president put on path to lead China amid row on reforms

Chinese vice-president Xi Jinping has been promoted to a key post in the Communist Party's military committee, affirming his path to be the country's leader within three years.

However, the party offered little indication yesterday of consensus on another political uncertainty dogging it - the scope and pace of any future reforms to the political system.

Senior leaders have increasingly appeared at odds about the direction of any changes to the government and party, with relatively liberal premier Wen Jiabao going up against more conservative politicians.

Given such disagreements, Mr Xi's appointment to the party's Central Military Commission offered a chance for the party's factions to put on a show of unity.

The appointment was approved on the final day of the annual meeting of the party's governing Central Committee.

Mr Xi, 57, is the party's sixth-ranking leader and seen as the anointed successor to president Hu Jintao, who is expected to step down as party chief in 2012 and as president the next year.

Mr Xi's long-expected appointment to the commission that oversees the 2.3 million-member People's Liberation Army, as well as an identical body on the government side, has been viewed as a necessary step in preparing him for the top office.

"Barring anything unexpected, Xi will be taking over as party leader," said Ni Lexiong, a professor at Shanghai's University of Political Science and Law.

Without a transparent electoral process, the party utilises such appointments to show it is following precedent and proceeding with the succession in a predictable manner. Mr Hu had been made a vice--chairman of the military commission three years before taking over as party leader.

Mr Xi's rise illustrates the party's overwhelming desire for balance and cohesion, said Joseph Cheng, head of the Contemporary China Research Centre at the City University of Hong Kong. "Hu may have other preferences, but rocking the boat and changing the plan is too risky and the cost too high," said Mr Cheng.

However, consensus on political reforms remains elusive.

Mr Wen, the party's third-ranking leader, has made a unusually bold statements in recent months calling for unspecified changes to the one-party system.

Other leaders expected to step down along with Mr Hu and Mr Wen have denounced moves to adopt Western-style democratic institutions. A document issued yesterday pledged "vigorous yet steady" efforts to promote political restructuring, but offered no specifics beyond administrative refinements aimed at shoring up one-party rule. It focused on economic policy changes.

Mr Xi's appointment marks a victory for the "princelings" in the party, the sons and daughters of communist elders.Princelings often vie for position with the followers of former leader Jiang Zemin, who is believed to still wield considerable influence behind the scenes.

Mr Xi built his career working in the wealthy eastern provinces of Fujian and Zhejiang before being elevated to the nine-man Politburo Standing Committee in 2007.