Sons of China's top leaders - the princelings - performed unexpectedly well in the election for the Central Committee of the Communist Party announced yesterday, some holding their posts and others winning back positions lost five years ago.
Top of the list is Zeng Qinghong, 63, the right-hand man of President Jiang Zemin, who today is expected to join the seven-member Standing Committee of the Politburo, the small group of men who will control China for the next five years.
His father, Zeng Shan, was a general in the communist army who became a member of the government and his mother was one of the few women who took part in the 1934-35 Long March.
Mr Zeng was among 198 full and 158 alternate members of the Central Committee chosen on the final day of the congress.
Other princelings elected included Deng Pufang, 58, who finished second last on the list of alternate members of the Central Committee at the last congress in 1997, but retained his place as an alternate this time.
The son of late paramount leader Deng Xiaoping, he was crippled during the Cultural Revolution when he was thrown out of a window by Red Guards.