Analysis | How China’s regional chiefs use Trump tactic in race for top

Some contenders for top Communist Party leadership positions in China appear to have taken a leaf out of US President Donald Trump’s book by resorting to flattery and “truthful hyperbole” in recent speeches to provincial party congresses.

In his 1987 book The Art of the Deal, Trump emphasised the value of “an innocent form of exaggeration” in winning over support. Guangdong party secretary Hu Chunhua mentioned party general secretary Xi Jinping’s name 26 times in his keynote address to the provincial party congress last month and Xi’s role as the core of the party leadership seven times.

Another contender for one of five possible vacancies on the party’s topmost Politburo Standing Committee at the party’s 19th national congress this autumn, Guizhou party boss Chen Miner, emphasised one of Xi’s main concerns, poverty alleviation, in his speech to the province’s party congress in April, mentioning the word poverty more than 90 times.

The present Politburo Standing Committee has seven members, but if an unwritten retirement rule known as “seven up, eight down” is observed, mandating retirement for those 68 or older, there will be five vacancies this year. Only two committee members – Xi, who will be 64, and Premier Li Keqiang, who will be 62 – will be under 68 by the time of the congress.

The top contenders for promotion are likely to come from the ranks of China’s 31 regional party secretaries, with Hu, 54, Chen, 56, and Chongqing’s Sun Zhengcai, 53, seen as three rising political stars, along with those serving with the central authorities, such as Politburo members Li Zhanshu and Wang Yang. Li is director of the party Central Committee’s General Office and Wang Yang is a vice-premier.

In his May 22 political report to the provincial party congress in Guangdong, one of China’s richest provinces, Hu chose to highlight his achievements in fighting corruption, one of Xi’s priorities in recent years.