Zhou Qiang's new role as the top judge is largely symbolic

Until his failure to win a seat on the Communist Party's powerful Politburo at its national congress in November, new Supreme People's Court president Zhou Qiang had been viewed as a rising political star.

Hu Chunhua and Sun Zhengcai, both three years younger than the 52-year-old Zhou, have now eclipsed him on the political stage after joining the 25-member Politburo, and are in pole position to become the core of the party's sixth-generation leadership.

Zhou's new post as the country's top judge makes him a state leader but it is also a more symbolic one in a country largely ruled by the party rather than the law. Still, given his relative youth among the party elite, Zhou, unlike his predecessors, could still join the Politburo in the future if made the top official in charge of law and order.

A source close to Zhou said the former Hunan party chief would have preferred to become party secretary of a province with robust economic development prospects, such as Shandong, because that would have given him more real power.

"He will enjoy little real power even though he is nominally the head of all judges at different levels across the country," the source said. "When you consider that the wages and benefits of his subordinates are largely provided by regional governments, you will immediately figure out whose orders they will listen to."

Sixteen years ago, when he headed the Communist Youth League, Zhou was considered an important member of the camp - the power base of Hu Jintao who stood down as president on Thursday - and was being groomed to become part of one of the People's Republic's sixth generation of leaders in another 10 years.