China's powerhouses pick leaders

Shanghai Mayor Chen Liang yu is one of the frontrunners for the leadership post of the Shanghai Party

(CNN) -- China's two powerhouses, Shanghai and Guangdong, have picked their leaders -- but neither is expected to remain in their offices for long.

Huang Ju, Party Secretary of Shanghai since 1994, was on Tuesday re-elected party boss by the local party congress.

However, since Huang, 63, has already served in senior positions in Shanghai since the early 1980s, he is expected to move to a top position, maybe the vice-chairmanship, at the National People's Congress (NPC) next March.

Shanghai sources said Education Minister Chen Zhili, 59, and the new mayor, Chen Liangyu, 55, are frontrunners to take over Huang's portfolio, which carries Politburo status.

"Huang is quite a lackluster bureaucrat and his departure won't be missed," said a local trade official.

"However, Shanghai is facing big challenges and whoever replaces Huang will have to be a dynamic and strong leader."

While Chen Zhili, a former vice-party secretary of Shanghai, is considered a crony of President Jiang Zemin, Chen Liangyi is deemed more capable of leading the city to newer glories.

The official said there were expectations that Chen Liangyi might turn out to be as effective as former mayor Xu Kuangdi, who was given a pre-retirement job earlier this year partly because he could not get along with Huang.

Days numbered

Guangdong Governor Lu Ruihua is tipped to resign soon

It is understood that Shanghai cadres are in a nervous mood given the fact that days of the predominance of the so-called Shanghai Faction may be numbered.

Vice-President Hu Jintao and Vice-Premier Wen Jiabao, likely to become respectively party general secretary and premier, are non-Shanghai Faction affiliates who may put an end to the practice of favoring Shanghai in resource allocation and other areas.

Meanwhile, the Guangdong party congress earlier this week re-elected Li Changchun as party secretary.

Li, 57, currently the youngest member of the Politburo, is expected to be transferred to Beijing either at the 16th party congress this autumn or at the NPC next March.

He has over the past years ingratiated himself with President Jiang through running numerous ideological education campaigns whose theme is learning from 'Jiang Theory.'

Unlike the case of Shanghai, however, there is no frontrunner to succeed Li. The current governor, Lu Ruihua, a native of the rich province, is tipped to retire soon.

And in line with Beijing's new policy of not appointing native sons to top positions in Guangdong, the new party boss will mostly likely come from the north.

The controversial governor of Liaoning, Bo Xilai, has been cited in political circles in Beijing as a candidate for the post of Guangdong governor -- and Guangdong party boss a couple or so of years later.