Mainland leaders have set up two teams to spearhead the preparations for October's 16th Communist Party Congress, sources in the capital and a pro-Beijing newspaper said yesterday.
One of the teams will be involved in preparing for the personnel reshuffle, the other will work on communist theory, the Hong Kong-based, Beijing-backed Wen Wei Po said.
It quoted party sources as saying that the teams were mainly composed of cadres from the Central Propaganda Department, Central Party School and Central General Office.
One of the teams would be responsible for drafting President Jiang Zemin's work report and working on his Theory of the Three Representatives - which holds that the party must represent the foremost production forces, the most advanced culture and the interests of the masses, and which is expected to be incorporated into his keynote policy address.
Mr Jiang's theory is aimed at paving the way for entrepreneurs to become party members, as the business sector is playing an increasingly important role on the mainland.
Wen Wei Po said in a separate report that the Central Party School planned to break a party protocol by recommending that some of the young to middle-aged elite cadres attend other universities or institutions for training.
Experts have also been recruited from other institutions to teach at the school, in the hope that concepts of modern society can be used to revamp the Central Party School's outdated courses on Marxism theory.