China has unveiled its new generation of leaders, the seven men who will make up the cabinet charged with governing the country.

The seven-man Politburo Standing Committee, trimmed from nine, was confirmed after the Communist Party's Peoples' Congress wrapped up yesterday.

As expected, Xi Jinping was officially installed as the Communist Party's new general secretary, taking over from president Hu Jintao, while Li Keqiang will be prime minister.

The other appointments to the Politburo Standing Committee had remained top secret until a ceremonial unveiling today.

Guangdong's reform-minded party boss Wang Yang did not make it to the Standing Committee.

"I expect little change - nothing radical," said Alberto Forchielli, managing partner of Mandarin Capital Partners in Shanghai. "None will do any different than in the past unless there is a crisis."

Xi Jinping

Xi Jingping, China's vice president ( Reuters )

Xi Jinping, 59, is the Communist Party's new general secretary .

Xi Jinping, 59, is the Communist Party's new . The appointment confirms him as Hu Jintao's anointed successor as president .

The appointment confirms him as Hu Jintao's anointed successor as . Reform credentials: Considered a cautious reformer, having spent time in top positions in Fujian and Zhejiang provinces, both at the forefront of China's economic reforms.

Xi Jinping takes over as Communist Party boss immediately, and will become head of state in March; he is expected to hold both posts for the next decade.

Xi has also been appointed chief of China's military, with outgoing Chinese leader Hu Jintao standing down as chairman of the Central Military Commission.

Hu's predecessor, Jiang Zemin, had held onto the powerful position for two years after Hu was made president.

Xi belongs to the party's 'princeling' generation, the offspring of communist revolutionaries. His father, former vice premier Xi Zhongxun, fought alongside Mao Zedong in the Chinese civil war. Xi watched his father being purged and later, during the Cultural Revolution, spent years in the countryside before making his way to university and then to power.

Married to famous singer Peng Liyuan, Xi has crafted a low-key and sometimes blunt political style.

He has complained that officials' speeches and writings are clogged with party jargon, and has demanded more plain speaking.

Xi went to work in the poor north-western Chinese countryside as a "sent-down youth" during the chaos of the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution, and became a rural commune official.

He went on to study chemical engineering at Tsinghua University in Beijing and later gained a doctorate in Marxist theory from Tsinghua.

A native of the poor, inland province of Shaanxi, Xi was promoted to governor of south-eastern Fujian province in 1999 and became party boss in neighbouring Zhejiang province in 2003.

In 2007, the tall, portly Xi secured the top job in China's commercial capital, Shanghai, when his predecessor was caught up in a huge corruption case. Later that year he was promoted to the party's standing committee.

Li Keqiang

Li Keqiang, Chinese vice premier. ( Reuters )

Li Keqiang, 57, will replace Wen Jiabao as prime minister .

Li Keqiang, 57, will replace Wen Jiabao as . Reform credentials: Seen as another cautious reformer due to his relatively liberal university experiences.

Li Keqiang's ascent marks an extraordinary rise for a man who as a youth was sent to toil in the countryside during Mao's Cultural Revolution.

He was born in Anhui province in 1955, son of a local rural official. Li worked on a commune that was one of the first places to quietly revive private bonuses in farming in the late 1970s.

By the time he left Anhui, Li was a Communist Party member and secretary of his production brigade.

He studied law at the elite Peking University, which was among the first Chinese schools to resume teaching law after the Cultural Revolution. He worked to master English and co-translated The Due Process of Law by Lord Denning, the famed English jurist.

In 1980, Li, then in the official student union, endorsed controversial campus elections. Party conservatives were aghast but Li, already a prudent political player, stayed out of the controversial vote.

He climbed the party ranks and in 1983 joined the Communist Youth League's central secretariat, headed then by Hu Jintao.

Li later served in challenging party chief posts in Liaoning, a frigid north-eastern rust-belt province, and rural Henan province. He was named to the powerful standing committee in 2007.

Zhang Dejiang

Zhang Dejiang, China's vice premier ( Reuters )

Zhang Dejiang, 65, is expected to head China's largely rubber-stamp parliament .

Zhang Dejiang, 65, is expected to head China's largely rubber-stamp . Reform credentials: A conservative trained in North Korea.

Zhang Dejiang saw his chances of promotion boosted this year when he was chosen to replace disgraced politician Bo Xilai as Chongqing party boss.

He also serves as vice premier in charge of industry, though his record has been tarnished by the downfall of the railway minister last year for corruption.

Zhang is close to former president Jiang Zemin, who still wields some influence.

He studied economics at Kim Il-sung University in North Korea and is a native of north-eastern China.

On his watch as party chief of Guangdong, the southern province maintained its position as a powerhouse of China's economic growth, even as it struggled with energy shortages, corruption-fuelled unrest and the 2003 SARS epidemic.

The Brookings Institution suggests that Zhang may promote politics in favour of the development of state-owned enterprises, state monopoly and economic protectionism.

Yu Zhengsheng

Yu Zhengsheng, Shanghai party secretary in China. ( Reuters )

Yu Zhengsheng, 67, is likely to head parliament's advisory body .

Yu Zhengsheng, 67, is likely to head . Reform credentials: Relatively low-key but considered a cautious reformer.

Yu Zhengsheng is party boss in China's financial hub and most cosmopolitan city, Shanghai.

His impeccable Communist pedigree made him a rising star in the mid-1980s until his brother, an intelligence official, defected to the United States.

His close ties with Deng Pufang, the eldest son of late paramount leader Deng Xiaoping, spared him the full political repercussions but he was taken off the fast track.

Yu bided his time in ministerial ranks until bouncing back, joining the Politburo in 2002.

The Brookings Institution says Yu is widely considered a protégé of both Deng Xiaoping and Jiang Zemin.

It says his key policy issues may include "the promotion of the private sector, urban development, legal development, and social reform to promote confidence-building and mutual trust in society".

Liu Yunshan

Liu Yunshan, China politburo member. ( Reuters )

Liu Yunshan, 65, was seen as a candidate for the propaganda and ideology portfolio.

Liu Yunshan, 65, was seen as a candidate for the portfolio. Reform credentials: A conservative who has kept domestic media on a tight leash.

Lin Yunshan has a background in media, once working as a reporter for state-run news agency Xinhua in Inner Mongolia, where he later served in party and propaganda roles before shifting to Beijing.

As minister of the party's Propaganda Department since 2002, Liu has also sought to control the internet in China, where there are more than 500 million web users.

He has been a member of the wider Politburo for two five-year terms ending this year.

Liu worked for the Communist Youth League for two years in Inner Mongolia from 1982-84, and is also aligned to it through his lengthy career in an inland, poor province, long ties to the party's propaganda system, and close relationship with Hu Jintao.

The Brookings Institution says it is expected that if he becomes China's new propaganda chief, Liu will continue the country's policy of tight control over media and the internet.

Wang Qishan

Chinese vice-premier Wang Qishan. ( Reuters )

Wang Qishan, 64, is expected to be in charge of fighting corruption .

Wang Qishan, 64, is expected to be in charge of . Reform credentials: A financial reformer and problem solver with deep experience tackling tricky economic and political problems.

Wang Qishan is one of four vice premiers and an ex-mayor of Beijing.

He has a keen grasp of complex economic issues and is the only likely member of the Standing Committee to have been chief executive of a corporation, leading the state-owned China Construction Bank from 1994 to 1997.

Wang is an experienced negotiator who has led finance and trade negotiations as well as the Strategic and Economic Dialogue with the United States.

He is a favourite of foreign investors and has long been seen as a problem solver, sorting out a debt crisis in Guangdong province, where he was vice governor in the late 1990s and replacing the sacked Beijing mayor after a cover-up of the deadly SARS virus in 2003.

Wang is also a 'princeling', the son-in-law of a former vice premier and ex-standing committee member, Yao Yilin.

Zhang Gaoli

Zhang Gaoli, Secretary of the Tianjin Municipal Committee in China. ( Reuters )

Zhang Gaoli, 65, is seen as a Jiang Zemin ally but also acceptable to Hu Jintao.

Zhang Gaoli, 65, is seen as a but also acceptable to Hu Jintao. Reform credentials: A financial reformer with experience in more developed parts of China.

Zhang Gaoli is party chief of the northern port city of Tianjin and a Politburo member since 2007.

Zhang is an advocate of greater foreign investment and he introduced financial reforms in a bid to turn the city into a financial centre in northern China.

He was sent to clean up Tianjin, which was hit by a string of corruption scandals implicating his predecessor and the former top adviser to the city's lawmaking body. The adviser committed suicide shortly after Zhang's arrival.

A native of southeastern Fujian province, Zhang trained as an economist.

He also served as party chief and governor of eastern Shandong province and as Guangdong vice governor.

Zhang is low-key with a down-to-earth work style, and not much is known about his specific interests and aspirations.

But he has leadership experience in more economically advanced cities and provinces, including party secretary of the showcase manufacturing and export-driven city of Shenzhen.

Notable omissions

The following figures had been tipped as possible members of the committee but were not selected.

Li Yuanchao , head of the party's powerful Organisation Department, which controls personnel appointments across the vast Communist system.

, head of the party's powerful Organisation Department, which controls personnel appointments across the vast Communist system. Wang Yang , party secretary of Guangdong province since 2007; Wang is considered a reformer, credited with promoting development in Guangdong by emphasising private enterprise, economic growth and a greater - although very limited - role for civil society.

, party secretary of Guangdong province since 2007; Wang is considered a reformer, credited with promoting development in Guangdong by emphasising private enterprise, economic growth and a greater - although very limited - role for civil society. Liu Yandong , the only woman on the 25-member Politburo and as such China's highest-ranking female politician.

, the only woman on the 25-member Politburo and as such China's highest-ranking female politician. Meng Jianzhu, public security minister since 2007. He became deputy mayor of Shanghai in 1993 and rose to deputy party secretary there from 1996-2001.

Reuters