The seven men who embody the Chinese Communist Party's "fifth generation" of leadership revealed themselves to the world Thursday morning. Standing on numbers stencilled on the carpet to denote their position in the hierarchy, they submitted to a few potted questions from the media and then retired behind the screen, leaving China watchers to speculate about what the lineup means for future policy.

The consensus is that the hardliners defeated reformers, and political liberalization is unlikely. While there is some basis for this assessment, it's important to remember that the experts are wrong all the time. Outgoing leader Hu Jintao was heralded as a potential political reformer when he came to power in 2002, but his term has seen an increase in political repression and a slowdown in economic liberalization.

It is clear that new Party General Secretary Xi Jinping will have an easier time consolidating power than Mr. Hu did. For that he can thank his mentor, former General Secretary Jiang Zemin, who helped place members of their faction in key positions. Mr. Hu has also agreed to hand over to Mr. Xi the chairmanship of the Central Military Commission, which controls the People's Liberation Army. Mr. Jiang only gave up this post in 2004, and then reluctantly.

The Party is spinning all this as part of its institutionalization of the mechanisms for selecting new leaders, which will make its rule more stable. But this year the facade of stability was smashed when rising star Bo Xilai was removed from his posts and his wife convicted of murder. Mr. Bo has been accused of corruption, but his real crime was an attempt to use populist rhetoric and policies to force his way into the Politburo Standing Committee.

That threat to the dull but stable leadership system set up by the last paramount leader Deng Xiaoping looks to have been averted. But another may be brewing in the form of Mr. Xi's early dominance.