China: Communist Party goes to the seaside to decide on new leaders China's once-a-decade political transition coming this autumn seems devoid of drama on the surface: it's clear who will take over, and the fight for other top spots is invisible to the public. But beneath the veneer of calm, the Communist Party is struggling to contain troubling events and mask divisions. Five years after he was picked as successor, vice president Xi Jinping remains on track to take over from president Hu Jintao in the party's forthcoming congress, where its leading members will install a new generation of leaders. China is run by a collective leadership, and many of the other places on the nine-seat Politburo standing committee, decision-making's inner sanctum, are undecided, analysts and party insiders say. Final decisions on the leadership line-up and key issues to be addressed at the congress should be hammered out in various sessions this summer, including informal meetings east of Beijing at the seaside resort of Beidaihe, which the party elite left for this weekend. None of the leading contenders - mostly protégés of Hu or other rival party elders - is trying to grab headlines. Open politicking is strongly frowned upon, and while competition for posts and influence is intense, it takes place far from the public eye as the party seeks to display a united front. As the party's unstated contract with the people exchanging one-party rule for economic growth frays, pressure for reform is likely to intensify. China is currently experiencing a three-year low of growth of 7.6 per cent in the three months ending in June "The economic downturn, human rights demands and political reform are major issues for the party," said Wu Si, editor-in-chief of the Beijing-based pro-reform journal Yanhuang Chunqiu. None of the leaders know what to do about it. The relative down-turn could worsen unrest. China already sees 180,000 strikes, protests and other mass demonstrations each year, according to government data compiled by Tsinghua University sociologist Sun Liping. Trying to put a lid on disturbances ahead of the congress, authorities are tightening already stringent controls on political critics and activists. Wu Lihong, who once received a government award for his environmental campaigning, said he has been told not to travel or accept speaking engagements in coming months. "They're using the congress as a pretext for every kind of restriction they can think of," Wu said this weekend. Authorities also are trying to keep Chinese media in line. They dismissed two editors at Shanghai's Oriental Morning Post after publication of a story calling for private industry to enjoy the same rights as state companies. Southern Weekly, one of the country's most widely respected newspaper groups, has seen editors replaced by propaganda officials. Everybody feels like things are getting more oppressive. It's been happening for a long time, but the party congress is making it worse," said one former Southern Weekly editor. To some Chinese, government repression is raising doubts about whether a new slate of leaders will overcome entrenched interests. Zhang Jian of Peking University's school of government said that even if Xi were inclined to make bold social or economic changes, he would need support from other leaders. "I see no hope that Xi will be able to put in place any serious, meaningful political reform," Zhang said.