Hu Jintao is keen to have the proceedings against Bo Xilai, the party boss of the southwestern metropolis of Chongqing, completed before handing over as the general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) to his expected successor Xi Jinping.
The transition to Xi is to take place at the 18th Congress of the CPC. Originally, the expectations were that the 18th Congress would be held on October 18 , 2012, at which Hu will hand over to Xi the leadership of the Party and a new Politburo and its Standing Committee would take over.
But till September 27, there was no announcement of the exact date of the Congress. This gave rise to speculation that the delay was due to divergence of opinion among senior leaders of the party as to whether the disciplinary and criminal proceedings against Bo should be supervised by the present Politburo and its Standing Committee headed by Hu or by the new Politburo and its Standing Committee that will be headed by Xi with Hu having no more control over the proceedings.
This speculation was ended on September 28, 2012, with a twin announcement regarding the completion of the Party disciplinary proceedings against Bo under Hu’s supervision and the proposed convening of the 18th Party Congress on November 8 instead of on October 18 as originally expected.
It was announced by the official Xinhua news agency that Bo, who had been a member of the powerful Politburo, was stripped of his party membership and other positions held by him. It said: