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East-Asia-Intel.com

Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping conducted a four-day visit to the United States which got generally benign press reviews in the U.S. and back home.

But China analysts were buzzing about the signs that Xi’s rise to power might not be going as smoothly as is widely expected.

As the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) gets ready for a once-in-a-decade generational change at its 18th Congress this October, the battle to get into the nine-member Politburo Standing Committee (PBSC), China’s highest ruling council intensified with word that charismatic Chongqing Party Secretary Bo Xilai, 62, already an ordinary Politburo member, was in trouble.

Bo has during the past two years bolstered his resume with campaigns to crack down on triads and to restore Maoist values and culture. Until the Chinese New Year last month, Bo was considered a shoo-in for PBSC membership. Then his opponents, who apparently include President and CCP General Secretary Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao, as the ‘Inside China’ column noted last week, “used a standard ploy to torpedo his promotional prospects by targeting a key protege on corruption allegations.”

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  Bo Xilai, CCP, Hu Jintao, intel debate over succession, Top ‘princeling’s U.S. visit clouded by defection try, Wen Jiabao, Xi Jinping