No dramatic change in offing from new leadership

REFORM CREDENTIALS: Considered a cautious reformer, having spent time in top positions in the coastal Fujian & Zhejiang provinces, both at the forefront of China’s economic reforms.

Xi Jinping, 59, is China’s Vice-President and will take over as the head of state in March. Xi belongs to the party’s “princeling’ generation, the offspring of communist revolutionaries.

LI KEQIANG

REFORM CREDENTIALS: Seen as another cautious reformer due to his relatively liberal university experiences.

Vice-Premier Li Keqiang, 57, is the man tipped to be China’s next premier. Li served in challenging party chief posts in Liaoning, a frigid northeastern rustbelt province, and rural Henan province, where he was accused by activists of cracking down on them after an AIDS scandal.

Zhang Dejiang

REFORM CREDENTIALS: A conservative trained in North Korea.

Zhang Dejiang, 65, saw his chances of promotion boosted this year when he was chosen to replace disgraced politician Bo Xilai as Chongqing party boss. He also serves as vice-premier in charge of industry, though his record has been tarnished by the downfall of the railway minister in 2011 for graft. On his watch as party chief of Guangdong, the province maintained itself as a powerhouse of China’s growth, even as it struggled with energy shortages, graft-fuelled unrest and the 2003 SARS epidemic.

YU ZHENGSHENG

REFORM CREDENTIALS: Relatively low-key but considered a cautious reformer.

Yu Zhengsheng, 67, is party boss in China’s financial hub and most cosmopolitan city, Shanghai. Yu joined the Politburo in 2002. However, the princeling’s age would require him to retire in 2017 after one term.

LIU YUNSHAN

REFORM CREDENTIALS:

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