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Beijing, China -- Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping was appointed vice chairman of the Central Military Commission on Monday -- a move that is important symbolically and practically.
Xi is expected to assume the presidency when Hu Jintao steps down after his second and final term in 2012.
But whether he was on track to succeed Hu depended on whether the 300 members of the Communist Party's Central Committee elected him vice chairman of the military commission -- a powerful group that oversees the 2 million-strong People's Liberation Army.
On Monday, the plenum appointed him to the position.
Without it, 57-year-old Xi would have remained an outsider in military affairs.
His appointment follows tradition.
President Hu Jintao was promoted to the position years before he got the party's top job.
Xi is expected to assume the presidency when Hu Jintao steps down after his second and final term in 2012.
But whether he was on track to succeed Hu depended on whether the 300 members of the Communist Party's Central Committee elected him vice chairman of the military commission -- a powerful group that oversees the 2 million-strong People's Liberation Army.
On Monday, the plenum appointed him to the position.
Without it, 57-year-old Xi would have remained an outsider in military affairs.
His appointment follows tradition.
President Hu Jintao was promoted to the position years before he got the party's top job.