Chinese leaders gather for transition negotiations

Chinese Communist Party officials are assembling in the seaside resort town of Beidaihe, where negotiations on the country’s political transition are expected to come to a head, The New York Times reported. A Chinese news program on Sunday showed Xi Jinping, the man widely expected to succeed China’s current president Hu Jintao, among those who arrived in Beidaihe. After months of deliberations in Beijing, officials are expected to decide how to fill the seats of the 25-member Politburo, including the Politburo Standing Committee, China’s top governing body. The final composition will be announced during the CCP’s 18th National Congress later this fall. Officials are also likely to discuss the possibility of shrinking the Standing Committee from nine seats to seven. China’s political transition comes at a time when the voices calling for economic and in some cases political reform have grown louder and the country’s international presence has been magnified.