KYODO NEWS - Aug 31, 2017 - 20:08 | World, All

China's Communist Party will convene on Oct. 18 a once-in-five-years congress, official media said Thursday, at which Xi Jinping is likely to solidify his status as the country's strongest leader in decades.

The congress, the most important political event in China this year, is expected to run for about 10 days in Beijing and be attended by more than 2,000 delegates from across the country.

A report from China's state-run Xinhua News Agency did not say how long the forthcoming congress will run.

As Xi begins his second five-year term as head of the ruling party, the 19th National Congress will appoint the next generation of Chinese leaders.

When Xi rose to the top party post in November 2012, he had few trusted allies by his side.

However, that is all expected to change after Xi has wielded huge influence over who is chosen to sit on the Politburo Standing Committee, the country's highest decision-making body that was reduced to seven from nine men in the previous congress, and on the 25-person Politburo, as well as on the new makeup of the Central Committee and its alternate members.

Over the course of his first term as party general secretary, Xi succeeded in sidelining his rivals through an extraordinarily bold anti-corruption campaign and by tackling various entrenched interests.

Xi also made the world's second-largest economy's growing clout felt internationally, sometimes through his more assertive foreign policy.

At the same time, he created an image of himself as a more visionary leader than his predecessors, possibly best exemplified by his grand goal of bringing to life a "Chinese Dream" of prosperity and national rejuvenation.

In late 2016, Xi was elevated to the title of the party's "core leader," edging him closer to achieving his aspiration of exercising the sort of authority once enjoyed by Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping.

Reflecting his strong power, the 64-year-old leader's political theory may already be written into the constitution of the party in the upcoming congress.

In the months leading up to the congress, jockeying for power among factions within the party is believed to have intensified as they scrambled to secure key posts.

In a symbolic development, Sun Zhengcai, once a contender for China's top leadership in the reshuffle, was put under investigation in July for alleged "serious violation of discipline," a common euphemism for corruption.

With the sudden fall of Sun, Chen Min'er, a rising political star known as a Xi loyalist, took over as party chief of the mega-city of Chongqing in southwest China.

Whether the party will change the retirement age of senior members, set at 68 by Xi's predecessors, is another focus of the congress.

If the age ceiling holds, Wang Qishan, one of the seven members of the party's standing committee and seen as Xi's most trusted right-hand man, will need to step down from the country's apex of power with four others.

Speculation is rife that Xi may maneuver to raise the age limit to retain Wang, who has been in charge of driving the Chinese president's sweeping anti-graft crackdown.

The change would also pave the way for Xi to stay in power for a third term.