Jiang to wield power in retirement

‘‘With the Congress election of a new Central Committee, the party’s central collective leadership has realised a smooth transition from the old to the new,’’ Jiang, 76, said at the end of the party’s 16th Congress.

Jiang also succeeded in forcing the early retirement of a long-time rival and political maverick, Li Ruihuan, whom some consider the most liberal of the nation’s top leaders.

Jiang’s victory over Ruihuan was a sign of his political influence. Ruihuan’s name was not on a list of about 356 members and alternates to the party’s Central Committee issued on Thursday. Ruihuan’s exit follows a prolonged political struggle with Jiang and makes it easier for Jiang to stack the new leadership with allies through whom he can continue to exert influence, said sources.

More than 2,000 delegates burst into ‘‘thunderous’’ applause when the results of the election of a new Central Committee were announced, Xinhua said, sealing the transition to a new generation of leaders led by Vice-President Hu Jintao.

Hu, 59, was the only member of the current seven-men leadership elected to the Central Committee, it said, indicating he would take over from Jiang as party general secretary. Only Central Committee members can be on the Politburo Standing Committee — the pinnacle of power which now has seven seats — or party chief.

The Xinhua report was the first official confirmation that the party was moving ahead with what is billed as its first peaceful and orderly leadership succession.

The new Standing Committee will parade out from behind a screen in the Great Hall on Friday — the climax of a tense drama in which almost all the action has taken place off stage.

The consensus among Chinese sources is that Jiang has shoe-horned at least four key allies into the new Standing Committee. The body could also be expanded to nine, with six people from his camp, they say. Jiang has secured a seat for his main protege and hatchet man Zeng Qinghong, 63, they say. Vice-Premier Wen Jiabao, 60, is sure to join the Standing Committee, backed by Premier Zhu Rongji, 74, and is expected to take over the reins of Asia’s fastest growing economy next year. Parliament chief Li Peng, 74, has negotiated a seat for his protege, internal security chief Luo Gan, 67, who is likely to take over the party’s corruption watchdog.

The other candidates for the Standing Committee, whether it is seven or nine, all have close links to Jiang. ‘‘Wherever Hu looks — up, down, left or right — he will see Jiang’s men,’’ said a Chinese political scientist. (Reuters with LATWP)