Rising stars clam up when quizzed by reporters on future prospects
Top provincial officials tipped for big things prefer to play it safe when quizzed by reporters
As jockeying for top seats in the Communist Party's leadership entered the final days, several officials tipped as rising stars played it safe yesterday, ducking questions about promotions - or anything else sensitive.
Two heavily favoured candidates for seats on the powerful Politburo - Sun Zhengcai and Hu Chunhua , the party chiefs of Jilin and Inner Mongolia respectively - restricted their public comments to only the most basic provincial matters.
Sun, 49, one of the youngest ministry-level officials, answered only two queries from reporters in a provincial delegation meeting that turned into a press conference on the party congress' sidelines.
One was a harmless question about the province's efforts to restore ageing neighbourhoods, which Sun answered in full. The second was whether he expected to become Chongqing party secretary. He immediately clammed up.
"I don't know," Sun said. He did not say another word, even as members of his delegation proceeded to lavish praise on him, crediting him with improving the province's quality of life.
Hu - known as "Little Hu" because of the surname and Communist Youth League pedigree he shares with President Hu Jintao - is widely tipped to take the helm in Guangdong after the party congress. The two Hu's are not related.
Like Sun, Hu Chunhua sought to avoid controversy during the delegation meeting and press conference. He displayed few facial expressions and sometimes kept his head down, reading documents in front of him.
