Hu Jintao and future President Xi Jinping forge power pact over Bo scandal

Special to WorldTribune.com

By Willy Lam, East-Asia-Intel.com

Former Chongqing Party Secretary Bo Xilai’s alleged conspiracy to usurp Vice President Xi Jinping’s status as heir apparent to the Chinese Communist Party leadership has served to tighten ties between Xi and the current supremo, President Hu Jintao.

Future President Xi Jinping, left, and Premier Wen Jiabao bow to President Hu Jintao. /Getty Images

This has been seen as one of the few “positive results” that the Bo scandal has engendered for the CCP.

According to an understanding reached in 2007 within the Party’s high echelons, Xi will replace Hu as CCP general secretary at the 18th Party Congress scheduled for late 2012.

“Crown prince” Xi will assume the presidency in March 2013.

Even though both Bo, 62 and Xi, 58, are prominent members of the so-called Gang of Princelings (a reference to the offspring of Party elders), Bo’s alleged plot to elbow Xi aside has turned them into bitter foes.

Bo, the charismatic son of revered Party leader Bo Yibo, enjoyed the support of ultraconservative cadres including Politburo Standing Committee (PBSC) member Zhou Yongkang and a host of princeling generals in the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).

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