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BEIJING : China announced Monday that four new people had entered the Communist Party's top decision-making body, with one of the fresh faces a potential successor to President Hu Jintao in five years.
The new leadership team of the nine-member Politburo Standing Committee appeared before the press.
They included current Shanghai party chief Xi Jinping and Liaoning province head Li Keqiang, regarded as an ally of Hu.
The other new appointees are He Guoqiang, head of the organisation department of the party's powerful central committee for the past five years, and Zhou Yongkang, the minister of public security.
With their appointments now confirmed, Xi and Li, who were not even members of the party's Politburo until now, appear to have been put on the fast track for national leadership.
No information was immediately available about the precise responsibilities that Xi and Li would be assuming.
However, given the order in which they appeared before the press at a media briefing in Beijing's Great Hall of the People - normally a gauge of importance - it appeared Xi was slightly ahead of Li in the pecking order.
"Xi Jinping, 54, and Li Keqiang, 52, are two relatively young comrades," President Hu said at the briefing.
With the new appointments to the Standing Committee, the average age of its members is 62, exactly the same as when the previous Standing Committee was appointed five years ago. - AFP/ch
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