Xi Jinping takes helm of China

• Xi will lead a new seven-member collective leadership of technocrats
• Xi is expected to assume the presidency in March
• Xi takes over the party leadership from Hu Jintao

BEIJING – China's magnificent seven, the fifth and latest generation of Communist Party leaders to helm the world's most populous nation, strode into the limelight Thursday morning to end a week of public ceremony in Beijing – and many months of backroom bargaining.

The leader of the gang is Xi Jinping, 59, who has a celebrity singer wife and a daughter studying at Harvard. He took over from Hu Jintao as general secretary of the 82-million-strong Chinese Communist Party.

This once-a-decade leadership transition, picking a new party chief and the other members of the party's Politburo standing committee, the apex of power in China, represents only the second orderly succession in the People's Republic of China's often-troubled history.

There was no surprise in Xi's appointment, as he had long been picked to succeed Hu as party chief and president; nor in the appearance of Li Keqiang, 57, likely to succeed Wen Jiabao as premier when the less-important transition of government leaders takes place in March. Less expected was Xi's promotion, also announced Thursday, to head of the party's military commission, overseeing the People's Liberation Army. Hu Jintao could have held on to that post for two years, as his predecessor had.

Both Xi and Li, who already sit on the standing committee, are considered capable administrators but only cautious reformers at best. After months of speculation, the political drama Thursday focused on the identity, likely portfolios and reformist credentials of the other five men in the seven-member lineup, a reduction of two from Hu's nine-strong standing committee.

Calls for political reform, long-stalled under Hu Jintao, have grown louder in recent months. "China is now at a political crossroads and cannot afford to hold back," the financial magazine Caixin argued in an editorial Wednesday. "China is facing grim economic times, and reform is therefore a race against time."

Disappointment was in store for anyone hoping that more reform-minded candidates, such as Guangdong party boss Wang Yang, might appear. "This is a standing committee based on control, a stable, intra-elite deal, and I don't see any social message or the voice of the non-state sector," said Kerry Brown, a Chinese politics expert at the University of Sydney. With power bolstered by his elevated army position, "this whole show now hinges on Xi," said Brown, who expects no major policy changes for at least two years.

There won't be any swift or significant shifts, agreed Wang Wenzhang, a politics expert at Peking University, who also regretted the lack of younger, reform-minded leaders, but expressed confidence Xi and Li are bold enough to embrace reform. "We must wait several months or years, because the contradictions of various interest groups must be resolved," he said. "The easy reforms have already been done. The remainder are more difficult and need time."

In theory, the standing committee is chosen by the party's central committee elected Wednesday, which also chooses the wider Politburo. In reality, the top slots are decided by outgoing and former leaders in factional horse-trading behind the scenes. "This is highly managed, by a long process of consultation within elite groups," Brown said.

Xi did at least provide a presentational change, when he spoke Thursday after the new leaders walked onto a red stage inside Beijing's Great Hall of the People. More confident and relaxed than the very stiff Hu Jintao, Xi introduced his colleagues, stressed their heavy responsibility, praised the Chinese people and admitted serious problems, such as corruption within the party.

If the Xi Jinping-Li Keqiang regime chooses to open up the notoriously closed world of Chinese politics, it offered no immediate breakthroughs, as the party entertained no questions from the hundreds of watching Chinese and foreign reporters.

The new leadership must work through consensus, unlike the reigns of Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping. They face huge challenges, as China's long-booming economy slows, state-owned enterprises dominate at the expense of private firms, and social unrest spikes at land grabs, official corruption, income inequality and environmental worries.

On foreign policy, where Beijing's more assertive stance on territorial issues worries the United States and China's neighbors, don't expect any rapid changes, said Shen Dingli, an international relations expert at Shanghai's Fudan University. "China's fundamental interest is to sustain the party's power, which mainly comes from economic growth," bolstered by trade with the USA and others, he said. "We'll use our power to get the best outcome. The USA is a superpower; we are not. But the U.S. must still be sensible in doing business with China. There's no need to be confrontational, but you have to treat us fairly."

Human rights lawyer Li Baiguang was hopeful that Xi Jinping will improve China's weak rule of law, in a country where the party controls the courts. Xi once sent police to detain Li at home, said Li, when the lawyer was pursuing sensitive rights cases in Zhejiang province, where Xi served as party boss from 2003 to 2007. But Xi also pushed some positive legal change there, Li said. "Xi won't bring democracy to China, but he could build the rule of law which may restrict the party's power," he said.

On China's fast-growing microblog sites, users dodged censors to post comments and pictures online. "The seven leaders came out so slowly, I hope reform won't be that slow," lawyer Tao Jingzhou wrote on Sina Weibo. Some appeared to mock the whole process, posting pictures of seven animals such as turtles and pandas, while others tried to analyze the new lineup through their zodiac signs, ages and hometowns.

Despite extensive, flattering coverage of the leadership transition in the state-run media, many Chinese feel removed from the process of change and doubtful that citizens will be allowed to participate anytime soon. "I have no interest in the 18th party congress, so I won't watch the announcement, because I'll see the list everywhere in the newspapers and on TV channels this evening," Zhang Chunxin, 61, said while setting out for her daily walk with friends in a Beijing park. "As a retired woman, I don't expect much from our leaders. A stable country is enough."

Housewife Zhou Xiaojing planned to watch live coverage in the hope of a gender breakthrough at the pinnacle of Chinese power. "I wish a woman could get onto the Politburo standing committee. I don't know why there are so few female top officials," said Zhou, 35.

"I don't think we could choose our own leaders directly in the near future. If that happens, I'd spend more time getting to know the background of politicians," she said.

Contributing: Sunny Yang