Jiang Zemin faction wins in China's game of thrones
Former president outmanoeuvred his successor Hu Jintao, who only got one man from his faction into the Politburo Standing Committee
In a game between two sides, a win for one is a loss for the other.
Hu, who stood down as Communist Party secretary general at the party's just-concluded 18th national congress, has failed to install political allies in several key positions, particularly membership of the party's inner-most Politburo Standing Committee.
"By and large, we can see a line-up dominated by Jiang's men," said Liu Kang, director of US-based Duke University's China Research Centre.
Johnny Lau Yui-siu, a veteran China watcher, said: "Of these seven people [appointed to the Politburo Standing Committee], it's really six versus one because only Li Keqiang is seen as Hu's man, coming from the Communist Youth League."
The league, Hu's power base, is seen as a training ground for future leaders.
Most China watchers agreed the single most important factor in the selection of the Politburo Standing Committee and the wider, 25-member Politburo, was "patron-client ties".
