China promoted 15 military and paramilitary generals on Sunday, including the top bodyguard of military chief Jiang Zemin, in a move seen by some analysts as an indication the former Communist party chief would not step down.
Analysts said the promotions of the 15 People's Liberation Army (PLA) and People's Armed Police officers to four-star generals, announced on state media, were part of moves by Jiang to consolidate his position in the military.
Jiang, 77, handed the top job in the Communist Party to Hu Jintao in 2002 and the state presidency in 2003, but kept hold of the chairmanship of the party's Central Military Commission, the country's highest military body.
The promotion of Lieutenant General You Xigui, director of the Bodyguards Bureau, to full general was a sign Jiang had no plan to step down at the party's autumn plenum between September and November, military analysts said.
"A lieutenant general would have to retire if he's over 60 and not promoted to full general," a Chinese military source who spoke on condition of anonymity told Reuters.
The Bodyguards Bureau provides the country's top leaders with security personnel and is one of China's most politically sensitive jobs. In 1976, then chief bodyguard Wang Dongxing plotted and ordered the arrest of Mao Zedong's widow, Jiang Qing, and other members of her reviled Gang of Four in a coup.
Allowing You to remain chief bodyguard indicated Jiang wanted to stay on as he would prefer a chief bodyguard he could trust, analysts said.