China military chief may retire

Secrecy shrouded a meeting of China's Communist Party for a third day yesterday, but party sources said military chief Jiang Zemin was likely to give up his last post due to ill health, completing a leadership succession.

Jiang, 78, has come under increasing pressure in recent weeks to step aside by passing on the chairmanship of the Central Military Commission to party chief Hu Jintao, 61, at a four-day, closed-door party plenum that ends today.

Jiang, who had offered to resign on previous occasions in a tactic aimed at forcing allies to ask him to stay on, is likely to step down this time for health reasons, several party sources said, requesting anonymity.

"His health is very poor... He wants to go," one source told Reuters, quoting a family member.

Jiang has had a heart problem since 1989, said another source with ties to the party leadership.

Hu, who replaced Jiang as party chief in 2002 in the most orderly succession in Chinese Communist history and as president in 2003, would hold the three most powerful positions in China after taking over the military portfolio.

On Thursday, a source close to the military and a government source told Reuters that Jiang had offered to step down, echoing a report in The New York Times.

In a front-page story yesterday, Hong Kong's South China Morning Post quoted unidentified sources as saying Jiang handed in his resignation on Thursday when the party's elite Central Committee opened the plenum.

The Central Committee, which has 198 full members and 158 alternate members, rarely votes against any issue or personnel change put to it since these are always decided well in advance among the party's top echelons.

Jiang's retirement was unlikely to produce major changes in domestic and foreign policy, the Post said. But as Hu continues to consolidate his power and make his mark, subtle changes could be expected.