A RIVAL power centre to the so-called Jiang-Li axis is being licked into shape days after party chief Jiang Zemin and Premier Li Peng consolidated their grip at the National People's Congress.
Three leaders of the moderate wing of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) who have been side-lined have laid the groundwork for a challenge to the mainstream faction.
Late last month, Qiao Shi, Tian Ziyun, and Li Ruihuan - all members of the politburo - were given the peripheral slots of respectively Chairman and First Vice-Chairman of the NPC, and the Chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference(CPPCC).
Almost immediately after taking office, the trio sought to transform the NPC and the CPPCC - usually regarded as decorative, ''flower vase'' organs - into heavyweights capable of ''supervising'' party and Government.
If they can make good their pledges, checks and balances with Chinese characteristics will have been put into place. This is despite patriarch Deng Xiaoping's oft-repeated caveat that Beijing would never choose the ''Western-style tripartite division of power''.
Since the three NPC and CPPCC supremos represent the party's liberal wing, their power bid could also present party members and ordinary citizens with an alternative to the conservative Jiang-Li axis.