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BEIJING : The two men widely tipped as potential front-runners to succeed Chinese President Hu Jintao stepped onto the national stage on Tuesday, but stayed silent on the political intrigue surrounding them.
Shanghai Communist Party chief Xi Jinping, 54, and Liaoning province chief Li Keqiang, 52, presided over simultaneous meetings of their delegations to the party's five-yearly Congress.
Hu will be endorsed as party chief for another five years during the week-long Congress, but delegates will also decide who will fill other top leadership positions.
Many observers expected Li and Xi to be promoted into the elite Standing Committee of the Politburo, the party's top body, with one of them to potentially take over from Hu in 2012.
Hu opened the meeting on Monday with a speech heavily laden with references to his pet theme of "scientific development" -- a call for more sustainable growth that mitigates many of the problems caused by China's economic boom.
Both Xi and Li embraced Hu's development blueprint.
"Scientific development is something we are paying deep attention to," Xi told the media in brief comments following his delegations' meeting.
"Shanghai's focus on scientific development needs to be practical and conscientious. We will use it as our base and apply it as a rule."
Li made similar comments.
"Our party has the main principle that we are doing everything for the people. As long as we hold to this principle in everything we do, then a lot of problems can be addressed," Li said.
However he dodged a question on whether his political star was rising.
Xi's question-and-answer session ended before he was asked about the issue.
Hu is widely suspected to be battling behind the scenes during the Congress against a faction dominated by former president Jiang Zemin over appointments to top decision-making bodies and his successor.
Li is regarded as Hu's ally, while Xi is seen to be more closely aligned to Jiang.
- AFP /ls
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