Mr. Chen is “clearly being fast-tracked, and I think he will end up on the Standing Committee someday,” said Christopher K. Johnson, an expert on Chinese elite politics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “I’m doubtful it will happen now, but Xi Jinping could force his elevation as a declaration of his leadership supremacy.”

Image Chen Min’er, recently appointed Communist Party secretary of Chongqing. Credit... Tyrone Siu/Reuters

In the jockeying for advancement, Mr. Chen starts with several advantages. He is one of Mr. Xi’s protégés, having spent much of his career in Zhejiang, a wealthier province in eastern China, while Mr. Xi was the party chief there. This summer, Mr. Chen was handed a high-profile assignment as party secretary of Chongqing, a vast municipality of 30 million where he can showcase his political skills.

And in between, he spent five and a half years governing the 36 million people of Guizhou, including most recently two years as party secretary, the most powerful job in a province. A stint in a poor, heavily rural province like Guizhou is important for Mr. Chen’s prospects. The future of China’s 590 million rural dwellers is an increasingly pressing issue for the government, and his time in Guizhou gives him the gritty, grass-roots experience expected of an aspiring national leader.

“Guizhou is a very good province for hopefuls to stay there for several years,” said Ding Xueliang, a scholar of Chinese politics at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. “You go to one of the poorest, most difficult places and take up the burden of changing it. That will earn you additional credit to rise higher.”

Bruce J. Dickson, a political scientist at the George Washington University, said party officials are often groomed for higher posts by spending time in a less developed area. “There is wide recognition that inequality is rising, and improving living standards in rural areas is one way to show the Chinese Communist Party is trying to narrow the gap,” he said.