China Briefing | China’s leadership reshuffle: what’s behind Xi Jinping’s poker face?

Even by the standards of opaque Chinese politics, the latest political gossip about the top leadership changes is particularly unusual and intriguing.

Nearly three weeks have passed since the current and retired Chinese leaders spent about 10 days in their secret annual gathering in the northern beach resort of Beidaihe. It was widely considered the last opportunity for them to reach consensus over the new leadership line-up, to be unveiled at the Communist Party’s 19th congress.

While announcing on Thursday that the opening date of the congress would be October 18, the party leadership also said its central committee would hold a plenum starting from October 11, presumably to finalise the agenda for the congress.

But the mixed signals about the make-up of the new line-up, which will guide the country’s development for the next five years or even longer, have been unclear and confusing. In past leadership changes, consistent and credible speculation about what was discussed and who was promoted to top posts tended to have trickled out by this point – and it usually proved accurate.

But this year, the rumour mill in the foreign media and the table talk on the mainland have offered up conflicting accounts of what was discussed or not discussed at the meeting and the supposed composition of the new line-up.

The stricter discipline over the party cadres imposed by President Xi Jinping may be partly to blame. In an increasingly tense environment, those in the know remain tight-lipped for fear of getting into trouble.