Chinese Communist Party chief Hu Jintao opened a four-day meeting on Saturday seeking to cement his grip on power, push his "harmonious society" platform to cope with rising social tension and possibly name a successor.
The plenary session of the 354-member Central Committee is poised to unveil the 11th Five-Year Plan - a new roadmap for the world's seventh-biggest economy that scraps a long-standing policy of faster growth in favour of improving social services and curbing widespread environmental devastation.
The closed-door plenum at the Soviet-era Jingxi Hotel in Beijing will be a test of whether Hu, 62, has fully consolidated power after replacing Jiang Zemin, 79, as party chief in 2002, state president in 2003 and military chief last year.
It is Hu's first plenum without his influential predecessor holding some form of office, although Jiang has stacked the party's upper echelons with his allies.
One focus will be on whether Hu can manoeuvre protege Li Keqiang, 50, who cut his teeth in Hu's power base, the China Youth League, into the decision-making Politburo, which currently has 24 full members and one alternate member.
"Li Keqiang is very likely to become the fifth generation leader," a source with ties to the leadership told Reuters, requesting anonymity. Hu is the country's fourth generation leader after Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping and Jiang.
Another independent source said Li's star was rising, despite mediocre performances as provincial party chief in Henan and in the north-eastern rustbelt of Liaoning.
Hu's trusted aide, Ling Jihua, may also move up the political ladder, the sources said. The results of the meeting are not expected to be made public until it closes on Tuesday.
Hu began to emerge from Jiang's shadow and start his long drive to consolidate power after ending a government cover-up of an outbreak of the Sars virus in 2003.
He has since sought to portray himself as a man of the people, championing the have-nots left behind by the country's economic boom. He has sought to boost government transparency and instil greater accountability.
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