BEIJING--A cautious political hopeful with a brilliant career behind him and a politician held in the highest regards by Chinese President Xi Jinping are vying to climb the ladder of power in China's Communist Party.

The current members of the Politburo’s Standing Committee are to be replaced at the CCP's national congress, scheduled to open on Oct. 16.

That is expected to put Vice Premier Hu Chunhua, 59, and Ding Xuexiang, 60, director of the party’s General Office, within reach of the nation’s top leadership position.

The two youngest members of the 25-member Politburo are expected to continue serving as top leaders five years from now for the next congress in 2027. Hu and Ding will be in their mid-60s in the party’s congress by then and are expected to become key players in the CCP.

Observers say how they are treated there will reflect Xi’s vision of China’s future leadership.

A STEADY HAND

Hu has been described as a “next-generation hopeful” for many years and is famed for his cautiousness.

One story is often repeated about him from 2013, when Hu was the secretary of Guangdong province. He attended a meeting of the provincial assembly where the emcee introduced him by saying, “Secretary Hu will deliver an important speech.”

Hu quickly denied that, and said his address was solely “a statement, not an important speech.” Hu added following his address that his words “are not necessarily correct” and that the audience should listen to him “just for reference,” according to state media.

“The story depicts Hu’s wary personality and the delicate position he was in at the time,” said a political scientist in Beijing.

Hailing from Hubei province, Hu entered the prestigious Peking University when he was 16.

After graduating, Hu worked in the Tibet Autonomous Region studying under Hu Jintao, the region’s top official at the time, who afterward became general secretary of the CCP.

Hu was later appointed as the first secretary of the Communist Youth League, making him the head of the arm of the CCP that nurtures elite officials, like Hu Jintao.

Many considered Hu to be one of the next-generation leaders from the powerful group of politicians linked to the Communist Youth League following Hu Jintao and Premier Li Keqiang.

CCP insiders said that serving as the secretary or head of two or more provinces or autonomous regions is essentially a requirement for securing seats in the Politburo’s Standing Committee.

In line with that tradition, Hu headed Hebei province and became the secretary of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

When a truck hit and killed a nomad who was trying to stop the vehicle from ravaging a grass field in 2011, Mongols began marching in protest in the autonomous region. Hu promptly traveled to the site.

Hu called the incident “malicious,” expressing sympathy for the residents to de-escalate the situation.

Following that, Hu was allowed to join the Politburo in his 40s.

Hu was then made responsible for the Guangdong province as its secretary. His stable management of the largest economy in China helped open a path to even further career success, establishing a foothold for him to join the nation’s next generation of leaders.

But the tide changed in 2012, after Xi took over as general secretary from Hu Jintao.

Ling Jihua, who was an executive member of the Communist Youth League before Hu, fell from power.

The Xi administration intensified its crackdown on the youth league, criticizing it for being “bureaucratized and aristocratic.” The group ultimately saw its clout reduced.

Many anticipated that Hu would find himself among the Politburo’s standing committee members in the previous CCP's congress in 2017, but that did not come to fruition.

Despite the harder footing, Hu continued to exhibit his skills as vice premier in charge of agriculture and trading. Recently he has accompanied Xi on trips to local areas more times than before.

In July this year, Hu penned an article to the People's Daily, the ruling Communist Party's flagship newspaper. He mentioned Xi’s name more than 50 times in it, a move intended to show his loyalty.

“Learning and sticking to Mr. Xi’s significant arguments must be set as an important political mission,” Hu wrote.

A RARE CAREER PATH

Amid the decline of the Communist Youth League, subordinates who worked with Xi while he was in areas far from Beijing were entrusted with important posts.

Among them was Ding, the director of the CCP's General Office, who was promoted to serve as a close aide to the general secretary.

Ding finished a course at a technical college and started his career at a government-affiliated research institute in Shanghai before becoming the deputy secretary of a ward in Shanghai in 2001. He has since been promoted many times within the CCP.

The turning point came for Ding when he was chosen to be an assistant to Xi, after Xi became the secretary of Shanghai in 2007. A year after Xi took office as general secretary, Ding was relocated to Beijing for a higher position.

A mid-level public relations executive of the CCP said the party has succeeded in retaining stable power over the huge country, which boasts a population of 1.4 billion citizens, because its senior officials learn the “circumstances local areas face on a broad scale, developing personnel suited for leadership posts through competition.”

Xi often speaks of how challenging it was at the beginning of his career in a farming village in Hebei province and then again in serving the Fujian and Zhejiang provinces along with Shanghai.

Wen Jiabao, a former premier, was counted among the top leaders of China, although he had never held top positions in regional governments. But there have been few such cases.

That makes Ding’s career extremely rare, as he was elevated directly by Xi.

Observers expect Ding to be selected as the top secretary of the Central Secretariat in the October congress of the CCP, including him in the list of the members of the Politburo’s Standing Committee.

Hu is seen as a promising candidate for the premier’s seat to join the committee as well, whereas Wang Yang, a Standing Committee member, is regarded as his powerful rival in the premier race.