China prepares for power handover but reverberations will be felt worldwide - byTania Branigan

Xi-Jinping China's new leader

His new suit is ready, his background reading has been dutifully digested, and Wu Xie'en is all set to play his part in the transfer of power to a new generation of Chinese leaders.

It was, he said solemnly, an honour and a responsibility. "In our country, the Communist party leads everything. We will elect the important national leaders at this meeting. It is very significant: many people's hopes and expectations are attached to it," said Wu, party secretary of Huaxi – "China's richest village" – and one of 2,270 delegates who will gather in Beijing for the 18th party congress on 8 November.

"I think people in other countries will care about the congress, just as we care about the presidential election in the United States," he added.

That may be optimistic, but China's rise means that the handover's reverberations will eventually be felt around the globe. "Whether you are in the US or Europe, what China does matters now," said Dali Yang, a political scientist at the University of Chicago.

The gathering in Beijing next week is merely the manifestation of the backstage process that began years ago, when the jockeying for power started, and will run through to next spring - when Xi becomes president - and even further; his authority will in part depend on when Hu Jintao steps down as chairman of the Central Military Commission, for example.

"It is not a smooth transition. It is full of contradictions and struggles and compromises too," said Li Weidong, a Beijing-based political commentator and former magazine editor. Some believe that even now there is disagreement over who will join the standing committee, though others insist a deal has been reached.

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