China’s leadership change gets messy

The process of leadership transition in China is turning out to be a chaotic affair, marked by scandals and increasing factional infighting according to analysts. The 18th congress of the Chinese Communist Party, gets under way on 8 November, but according to party insiders fresh infighting has erupted over rising star Li Yuanchao.

Li, who heads the powerful Organisation Department, is expected to take a senior post alongside the anointed incoming leader, Xi Jinping, when the new Politburo Standing Committee is announced on 15 November.

The process has had more than its fair share of controversy already with major public scandals including Friday's New York Times report that family members of premier Wen Jiabao had come to possess $2.7 billion in corporate assets. This came on the very day, authorities said Chongqing party boss Bo Xilai had been sent over to prosecutors for serious abuses of power and the involvement of his wife in the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood.

Earlier, president Hu Jintao's key powerbroker, Ling Jihua, was removed as head of the party's General Office following his implication in a cover-up of the death of his son in a high-speed Ferrari accident.

Li Yuanchao's fate has now been linked to Ling, this time regarding the manner in which Ling conducted a ''straw poll'' in May that set the stage for the leadership transition.

 Li Weidong, the publisher of the overseas Mingjing website, told John Garnaut of the Sydney Morning Herald that it was a state of extreme chaos and there was no absolute authority, as the two sides otherwise would not be biting each other like they have been.