Publicity attending the recent party Central Committee plenum and other media attention over the past year have shed light on the operations of the party's top decision-making body, the Politburo, under party General Secretary Hu Jintao's leadership. Much of the picture of Chinese leadership decision making remains dim, but the recent publicity has illuminated the formal aspects of Politburo routines and procedures in small but still significant ways. This publicity also permits tentative inferences about the dynamic of power in the Politburo and its Standing Committee and perhaps about Hu Jintao's personal aims in pressing institutional reform in the Politburo and beyond.

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