With Li Changchun's promotion yesterday to an expanded nine-man Politburo Standing Committee, Guangdong finally has a representative on the Communist Party's highest council.
But Mr Li, who has been Guangdong's party secretary since 1998, will soon be leaving his provincial post for a central government job - most likely a vice-premiership to be confirmed at the National People's Congress in March. Observers also doubt whether Mr Li, a Dalian native who spent most of his career in northern Liaoning and central Henan provinces, could ever be considered a forceful champion of Guangdong's interests.
'We have to bear in mind that Li Changchun will be taking on a central government position. His elevation doesn't mean anything significant for Guangdong,' said Peter T. Y. Cheung, a professor of politics and public administration at the University of Hong Kong.
'Very few people in Guangdong would see Li as a particularly strong advocate of local interests anyway.'
Mr Li has spent most of his time in Guangdong presiding over a series of central government campaigns aimed at curbing the province's free-wheeling ways, from the 1998 anti-smuggling campaign to the closure and subsequent bankruptcy of Guangdong International Trust and Investment Corp.
In this respect he could not have been more different from his predecessor, Guangdong native and former Politburo member Xie Fei. Not including non-native patrons such as Deng Xiaoping and Zhao Ziyang, Mr Xie is arguably the only real representative Guangdong has had during the past 20 years at the highest levels of power.
'[Mr Li's promotion] won't make that much difference to Guangdong. His agenda has always been more of a central government agenda than a provincial one,' said one Guangzhou-based diplomat.
