FOCUSING ON THE FUTURE: Delegates at the opening ceremony of the Party congress of northwest China's Shaanxi Province on May 7 (CFP)

Zhou Qiang, Party Secretary of central Hunan Province, was born in 1960 and attended Southwest University of Political Science and Law, where he received a master's degree in civil law. He worked in the Ministry of Justice for a decade after graduation before a career at the Communist Youth League of China (CYLC) Central Committee.

Born in April 1963, Hu Chunhua, Party Secretary of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in north China, was admitted by the Chinese Department of Peking University at the age of 16. Since his graduation, Hu has spent most of his political career in Tibet Autonomous Region.

In 2006, Hu replaced Zhou as the first secretary of the Secretariat of the CYLC Central Committee, a post once held by many state leaders, including General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee Hu Jintao.

So far, Party committees of Guizhou Province as well as Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang and Tibet autonomous regions, have the largest number of standing committee members who were born in the 1960s, with seven each.

The youngest standing committee member of a provincial-level CPC committee is 44-year-old Yang Yue in southeastern Fujian Province. Yang obtained his doctor's degree in engineering from Tsinghua University at the age of 28 and worked at the Secretariat of the CYLC Central Committee from 2001 to 2008.

The only female provincial Party head is 62-year-old Sun Chunlan, who became Party secretary of Fujian in 2009 and was reelected last November.

Development agendas

"Formulating a development plan suiting local conditions and electing qualified new leaders are the two major tasks of provincial-level Party congresses," said Professor Zhu.

While provincial-level regions in central and western China still put economic growth high on their agendas, provinces in economically advanced eastern areas identified different priorities.

For example, the Party congress of Shaanxi, Anhui and Jiangxi provinces, as well as Xinjiang and Guangxi autonomous regions, all put forward the goal of doubling their GDP over the next five years.

The Party congress of the southwestern Guizhou Province listed the targets of eliminating absolute poverty in the economically backward province and dramatically raising people's living standards.

By contrast, southern Guangdong Province, which has topped the country's provincial GDP rankings for 23 consecutive years, did not mention GDP in its Party congress report. The economic part of the report instead emphasized the tasks of growth model transformation and industrial upgrading by developing energy conservation, tourism and innovation industries.

The Party congress of the southern island province Hainan highlighted the goals of developing its marine economy and building itself into a top international tourism destination.

Meanwhile, improving people's livelihood has become the common theme of Party congresses around China.

Xinjiang, Liaoning, Anhui, Hunan, Yunnan and Jilin all shared the goal of doubling per-capita residential income over the next five years.

The Party congress report of Guangdong pledged to ensure people's equal access to public services, including education, medical care, pension and shelter.

The Party congress of Jiangsu listed increasing the income of middle- and low-income families, narrowing income gaps, promoting people's full development and guaranteeing people's dignity as major tasks over the next five years.

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