Getting your player ready...
BEIJING — The governing Communist Party will convene its annual policy meeting today with a sober, if not soporific, mandate to root out government corruption and make the party adapt to changing times. But lurking in the background is a more compelling topic: Who will become China’s next leader in 2012? Analysts want to see whether Vice President Xi Jinping adds the title of vice chairman of the Central Military Commission.
Such an appointment would be seen as a confirmation that Xi, 56, is set to succeed President Hu Jintao when Hu’s second term ends in 2012.
