Analysts welcome Xi Jinping's changes with caution

A month into office, the Communist Party's new leaders have shown an interest in change - symbolic or meaningful - to differentiate themselves from their predecessors.

While analysts have welcomed the changes introduced by the party's fifth generation of leaders, who were given the keys to the world's biggest political machine on November 15, they cautioned that it was too early to draw conclusions about the team tasked with guiding the world's second-largest economy and bringing about the so-called "Chinese renaissance" promised by new party general secretary Xi Jinping.

Gu Su, a political analyst and constitutional law professor at Nanjing University, said the new leadership had introduced at least four changes.

They are measures to reform the previously extravagant work style of senior officials; dealing swiftly with corruption allegations against about a dozen senior officials; high-profile support for reform by Xi and other top leaders; and an obvious change in the style of language used by leaders, replacing rhetoric with down-to-earth talk.

Gu was referring to a Politburo decision early this month to revamp the working style of senior officials. It issued eight new rules, calling for cutbacks to official motorcades and related traffic controls on the capital's notoriously congested roads, fewer empty words in official speeches and less exalted treatment of top leaders.

In the past month, at least 10 senior provincial and local officials have been snared in a graft-busting blitz under new party discipline chief Wang Qishan , also a member of the party's supreme, seven-member Politburo Standing Committee. Wang's appointment is being seen as an indication of the new leadership's commitment to dealing with the corruption epidemic that is a major source of public dissatisfaction with the ruling party and government. Wang is known as capable administrator, troubleshooter and problem-solver.