Will Communist Party give China’s top diplomat more say?

As Beijing scrambles to wrap up preparations for China’s quinquennial leadership reshuffle this month, calls have been mounting for the head of the country’s foreign policy establishment to be elevated into the Communist Party’s top echelon of power.

Diplomatic pundits say there is a good case for Beijing to appoint a powerful, Politburo-level foreign affairs supremo to oversee China’s ever expanding global interests in a chaotic and uncertain world.

While the possibility is slight, State Councillor Yang Jiechi, the country’s top-ranking diplomat, is the front-runner for elevation to the Politburo and appointment as a vice-premier, according to sources, because of his extensive past experience in dealing with the United States.

The promotion of the 67-year-old Yang, if confirmed at the end of the Communist Party’s national congress beginning this week, would put him in position to be appointed China’s first vice-premier with responsibility for foreign policy issues in more than a decade at the annual meeting of the National People’s Congress, China’s legislature, next March.

The absence of the country’s top diplomat from the Politburo was largely due to an unwritten party rule which favoured seniority over competence, pundits said.