Anhui party chief Guo Jinlong, a strong ally of President Hu Jintao, is expected to be named acting Beijing mayor soon, as the mainland leadership continues a sweeping reshuffle of key provincial and ministry posts, mainland sources said.
Chen Deming, a deputy minister of the National Development and Reform Commission and a rising technocrat, will be named the new minister of commerce, responsible for boosting domestic consumption and managing the mainland's increasingly complex international trade relations.
Mr Guo, 60, will take over from Wang Qishan, who has been elevated to the Politburo and will be named a vice-premier at a plenary session of the National People's Congress in March.
The appointment of Mr Guo is seen as a victory for Mr Hu that will help cement his power.
Although Mr Guo does not have a strong background in the Communist Youth League, the president's power base, he caught Mr Hu's attention because of his performance as the leading party official in Tibet - one of the harshest postings for any Han Chinese official - from 1993 to 2004. Mr Hu was Tibet party chief from 1988 to 1992.
Mr Guo, who studied physics at university and later trained to become an agriculture expert, is known as a go-getter for his leadership skills. In the past few weeks, he has been tipped to become the new Shanghai mayor or the new party secretary of Sichuan . He is expected to be named as acting mayor of Beijing soon, then confirmed as mayor at a plenary session of the capital's municipal congress early next year.
