“Xi heavily relies on his former co-workers, especially those from Fujian and Zhejiang,” said Alfred Wu, an associate professor and assistant dean at the National University of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.

“While some people were promoted earlier, Chen is likely to make it to the team of top leaders in the next party congress,” Wu said, noting Chen’s close working relationship with Xi and impressive performance in turning the backwater province of Guizhou into a big data centre.

Chen spent close to three decades in his native Zhejiang province in eastern China, where he studied Chinese language and literature at Shaoxing Normal College, before taking a number of mostly propaganda jobs in the Zhejiang cities of Shaoxing and Ningbo.

From 1999 to 2001, Chen served as president and party secretary of Zhejiang Daily, the provincial party committee’s mouthpiece, before taking the helm of the province’s propaganda department during Xi’s 2002-2007 tenure as Zhejiang party boss.

In a research note earlier last month, Cheng Li, director of the Brookings Institution’s John L. Thornton China Centre, and staff described Chen as “one of Xi Jinping’s most trusted protégés”.

“During those five years, Chen was widely believed to have substantially assisted Xi in preparing weekly columns for the provincial party newspaper, Zhejiang Daily,” the research note said.

Chen was a fervent advocate of many of Xi’s governance ideas and he was promoted, roughly a month after Xi became president, to governor of the poverty-stricken province of Guizhou in southwestern China, before moving further up to the role of Guizhou party boss in 2015.

In Zhejiang, Chen was seen as strongly supportive of private sector development, while in Guizhou he was known for his dedication to poverty alleviation, commitment to environmental protection, and promotion of big data, e-commerce, and innovation, the Brookings analysts said.

China’s Politburo wastes no time spreading Xi’s party congress message

In 2017, Chen took over as party chief in the southwestern megacity of Chongqing, replacing the now disgraced Sun Zhengcai, whose predecessor Bo Xilai was once a contender for a top leadership post before he was jailed in 2013 in a corruption scandal following the murder of a British businessman.

During his Chongqing tenure, Chen has emphasised the need to create a new “political ecology”, in contrast to the “poor governance” practised under the leadership of both Bo Xilai and Sun Zhengcai, the Brookings research note said.

Given his fast promotion, Chen was once considered by many overseas analysts to be a possible successor to Xi.

But just as no obvious heir apparent was promoted at the end of Xi’s first term five years ago, the Chinese leader has begun his unprecedented third term with no likely successor in his inner circle.

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China’s 20th party congress concludes with bigger than expected leadership reshuffle

China’s 20th party congress concludes with bigger than expected leadership reshuffle

Wu, from the National University of Singapore, said a transfer from Chongqing to Tianjin would not be a promotion because both were important municipalities.

“However, it would enrich Chen’s governing experience, preparing him for the next leadership reshuffle when Xi, expected to rule for a fourth term or beyond, would continue to need loyalists around him,” he said.

Four younger party leaders were promoted to the Politburo Standing Committee last week – Li Qiang, Cai Qi, Ding Xuexiang and Li Xi. All of them are trusted loyalists and three have crossed paths with Xi in Fujian, Zhejiang or Shanghai.