China's once-a-decade political transition coming this fall seems devoid of drama on the surface: It's clear who will take over, and the fight for other top spots is invisible to the public. But beneath the veneer of calm, the Communist Party is struggling to contain troubling events and mask divisions. 
 
 In this photo taken May 4, 2012, Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping speaks at a conference to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the founding of Chinese Communist Youth League at the Great Hall of the People... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this photo taken May 4, 2012, Chinese President Hu Jintao, right, Premier Wen Jiabao, left, and Vice President Xi Jinping clap as they arrive for a conference to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this photo taken Monday, March 5, 2012, then Chongqing Communist Party Secretary Bo Xilai scratches his chin during the opening session of the National People's Congress in Beijing. As the U.S. presidential... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this photo taken May 4, 2012, Zhou Yongkang, left, Chinese Communist Party Politburo Standing Committee member in charge of security, and Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang attend a conference to celebrate... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this photo taken Saturday, March 3, 2012, a military band conductor rehearses before the opening session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) in Beijing's Great Hall of... (Associated Press) 
 
 The world's second-largest economy is experiencing an unexpectedly sharp slowdown. Violent demonstrations percolate as people tire of corruption, land grabs and policies seen as unfair. Tensions simmer with neighboring countries and the U.S. over territorial disputes in the South China Sea. Then there's the unresolved scandal involving Bo Xilai, who was a well-connected contender for high office before he was ousted for still unexplained transgressions. 
 
 The communist grip on power isn't threatened and the lack of open elections means they require no voter approval. But the party risks eroded legitimacy and a reduced ability to impose its will, further alienating younger Chinese and encouraging critical opposition voices arguing for a democratic alternative. 
 
 As the party's unstated contract with the people exchanging one-party rule for economic growth frays, pressure for reform is likely to intensify. 
 
 "The economic downturn, human rights demands and political reform are major issues for the party," said Wu Si, editor-in-chief of the Beijing-based pro-reform journal Yanhuang Chunqiu. "None of the leaders know what to do about it." 
 
 Five years after he was picked as successor, Vice President Xi Jinping remains on track to take over from President Hu Jintao in the party's fall congress, where its leading members will install a new generation of leaders. 
 
 China is run by a collective leadership, and many of the other seats in the Politburo Standing Committee, decision-making's inner sanctum, are undecided, analysts and party insiders say. 
 
 Final decisions on the leadership lineup and key issues to be addressed at the congress should be hammered out in various sessions this summer, including informal meetings east of Beijing at the seaside Beidaihe resort. 
 
 None of the leading contenders _ mostly proteges of Hu or other rival party elders _ is trying to grab headlines. 
 
 Open politicking is strongly frowned upon, and while competition for posts and influence is intense, it takes place far from the public as the party seeks to display a united front, said Jiannan Zhu, a political scientist at the University of Nevada, Reno. 
 
 "The priority for the Chinese government ahead of the party congress is to make sure no major instability occurs," Zhu said. 
 
 The flamboyant Bo is one of the few Chinese politicians who did overtly campaign for a higher-level job, and that is believed to be one of the sins that led to his downfall. 
 
 His removal as party boss of the mega-city of Chongqing and suspension from the Politburo exposed divisions within the leadership. It also further convinced an already skeptical public about the greed and bare-knuckled machinations of their secretive leaders. 
 
 Bo's ouster this spring was accompanied by the announcement that his wife and a family aide were under investigation for the murder of a British businessman. Reports have said that Bo tried to quash the probe. 
 
 Trial for Bo's wife, Gu Kailai, and for his ex-police chief, Wang Lijun _ who exposed the murder when he fled briefly to a U.S. consulate _ could begin this month, according to diplomats in Beijing who spoke on condition of anonymity. 
 
 As for Bo himself, politically connected Chinese have previously said that party leaders would have address his fate before the congress to heal divisions, but the government and its media have said nothing about the case in recent weeks. 
 
 Dealing with Bo is believed to have distracted the leadership, delaying its response to the deepening slowdown that has dragged growth to a three-year low of 7.6 percent in the three months ending in June. Interest rates have been cut twice in the past month and a half in a bid to kick-start growth, but Beijing is powerless to stem the malaise in Europe and the U.S. that has slashed demand for Chinese exports. 
 
 The downturn could worsen unrest. China already sees 180,000 strikes, protests and other mass demonstrations each year, according to government data compiled by Tsinghua University sociologist Sun Liping. 
 
 In recent protests in the southwestern city of Shifang, high school students joined ordinary Chinese in demonstrating against a copper smelter. Images of police beating protesters bloody and firing tear gas sparked nationwide outrage after they circulated online. 
 
 Trying to put a lid on disturbances ahead of the congress, authorities are tightening already stringent controls on political critics and activists of all stripes. Wu Lihong, who once received a government award for his environmental campaigning, said he has been told not to travel or accept speaking engagements in coming months. 
 
 "They're using the congress as a pretext for every kind of restriction they can think of," Wu said by phone from his home near heavily polluted Lake Tai. 
 
 The need to quash unrest was underscored in a speech this week by the party's law and order chief, Zhou Yongkang, in which he ordered cadres to nip problems in the bud _ whatever the cost. 
 
 "All levels of the party and government must make maintaining stability their first responsibility," Zhou told security officials at a national teleconference Tuesday. 
 
 Authorities also are trying to keep Chinese media in line. They dismissed two editors at Shanghai's Oriental Morning Post after publication of a story calling for private industry to enjoy the same rights as state companies. 
 
 Southern Weekly, one of the country's most widely respected newspaper groups, has seen editors replaced by propaganda officials. Editors and reporters at the paper said the new leaders spiked an interview with Shifang's party boss, who was replaced soon after the riots. The party leader defended his actions and complained about the lack of outside support, the editors said. 
 
 "Everybody feels like things are getting more oppressive. It's been happening for a long time, but the party congress is making it worse," said one former Southern Weekly editor who now works for online media. He asked not to be named to avoid repercussions against his new employer. 
 
 To some Chinese, government repression is raising doubts about whether a new slate of leaders will overcome entrenched interests. 
 
 Zhang Jian of Peking University's School of Government said that even if Xi were inclined to make bold social or economic changes, he would need support from other leaders, and the government's recent heavy-handed tactics make clear there is no consensus that reforms are needed. 
 
 "I see no hope at all that Xi will be able to put in place any serious, meaningful political reform," Zhang said. 
 
 Meanwhile, economic pressure is likely to grow. China's rapidly aging society will severely restrict the labor pool, undermining China's low-cost advantage and increasing the social security burden for workers and the state. 
 
 "The world is changing rapidly around the party. Muddling through will not be feasible during Xi's rule," said Harvard China expert Tony Saich. A major crisis in coming years will either demand major reforms or severely challenge the communists' grip on power, Saich said. ||||| Beidaihe is a Chinese combination of the Jersey Shore and Martha’s Vineyard, with a pinch of red fervor: the hilly streets and public beaches are packed with shirtless Russians and Chinese families, while the party elites remain hidden in their villas and on their private patches of sand. A clock tower near Kiessling chimes “The East is Red,” a classic Mao anthem. 
 
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 The security presence has surged in recent weeks. Police officers in light blue uniforms patrol on Suzuki motorcycles and stand on street corners watching for jaywalkers. They have set up a checkpoint on the main road leading into town. 
 
 The informal talks are expected to start late this month and run into August, continuing a tradition that went into partial eclipse after China’s top leader, President Hu Jintao, took over from Jiang Zemin in 2002, and ordered party and government offices to stop more formal operations from the seaside during the summer palaver. But Mr. Jiang reportedly chafed at that and continued hobnobbing here with his allies. There was a notable conclave here in 2007 that Mr. Hu attended, to pave the way for the 17th Party Congress, according to scholars and a State Department cable disclosed by WikiLeaks. 
 
 In any case, politicking is inevitable when party elders show up to escape the stifling heat and pollution of Beijing. 
 
 Westerners began building up Beidaihe as a summer retreat in the late 19th century, as the Qing dynasty waned. When the People’s Liberation Army entered in 1948, the resort had 719 villas, according to China Daily, a state-run English-language newspaper. 
 
 Communist leaders began vacationing here. Mao was an avid swimmer and dove eagerly into the waters of the Bohai Sea. He convened formal conclaves here. His successor, Deng Xiaoping, made the meetings into annual events (he also took swims, supposedly to counter rumors of his ailing health). 
 
 The most infamous event at Beidaihe involved Lin Biao, a Communist marshal whom Mao accused of plotting a coup. On Sept. 13, 1971, after the coup attempt was supposedly discovered, Mr. Lin fled his villa here with his wife and a son and boarded a plane at the local airport. Their destination was the Soviet Union, but the plane crashed in Mongolia, killing everyone on board. 
 
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 There are plots and counterplots this year, too. Negotiations here will be complicated by the continuing scandal over Bo Xilai, the deposed Politburo member who was most recently party chief of Chongqing. Some political observers had expected that by now the party would have concluded the investigation into Mr. Bo and his wife, who is suspected of killing a British businessman. Several people with high-level party ties say that Mr. Bo, who is being held in secret and without charges, is fighting back against interrogators, and that party leaders are having a difficult time deciding how to resolve his case. 
 
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 During the negotiations, each current Standing Committee member should, at least in theory, have considerable say in determining the successor to his particular post. But party elders behind the scenes sometimes wield more authority. Mr. Jiang, though retired and ailing last year, may carry the greatest weight next to that of Mr. Hu. The heir apparent, Vice President Xi Jinping, also plays a role. 
 
 “Consensus among these three — the former, current and incoming leaders — is extremely important,” said Zhang Xiaojin, a political scientist at Tsinghua University in Beijing. 
 
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 A flurry of activity in recent months has laid the groundwork. In May, more than 300 senior cadres were asked at a meeting to list the officials they thought should make the Politburo Standing Committee, where all the seats are in play except for the top two. Those are expected to go to Mr. Xi and Li Keqiang, who is slated to take over as prime minister. 
 
 Polling of senior party members was also done before the 2007 congress. Such surveys are intended as reference points only, though they have become increasingly important. Talk is swirling in Beijing over the results of the May polling. One member of the party elite said several people associated with Mr. Hu’s political base did not do well. Two insiders said one person who ranked high was Wang Qishan, a vice prime minister who oversees the financial sector. 
 
 Party leaders are considering reducing the number of Standing Committee seats to seven from nine, as was the case as recently as 2002, many insiders say. Mr. Hu is believed to support the change, which is in part aimed at curbing the entrenchment of interest groups at the top. That could mean taking two portfolios — probably propaganda and one dubbed “politics and law” that encompasses domestic security — and either adding them to the duties of other leaders or downgrading them to the Politburo level. 
 
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 “With fewer people, they can concentrate power and increase their efficiency,” said one official at a state news media organization. 
 
 But there are other possible motives. The rapid expansion of security powers under Zhou Yongkang, the current Standing Committee member who heads the politics and law committee and supported Mr. Bo, has alarmed some party leaders, political analysts say. Since assuming the post in 2007, Mr. Zhou has capitalized on Mr. Hu’s focus on stability to build up the security apparatus, whose budget this year is officially $111 billion, $5 billion more than the military budget. 
 
 “The politics and law apparatus has grown too powerful,” an intelligence official said. “A lot of us feel this way.” 
 
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 A contraction of the Standing Committee could also hurt those vying for seats who are not among the very top candidates, most notably Wang Yang, the party chief of Guangdong Province, who cultivates a progressive image. 
 
 The size and structure of the leadership have been a matter of continuing discussion. One analyst with ties to officials involved in party planning said that at the May meeting, cadres were also asked to submit their views on changing the composition of the party’s upper echelons, in a glimpse of what may be called intraparty democracy. Though few changes were expected anytime soon, “a lot of people had very different ideas,” he said. 
 
 Those debates are remote from the lives of most people in Beidaihe. Yet talk of politics flows loosely here. At a beach reserved for local officials, next to an almost-deserted patch of sand blocked off for party leaders, a retired official in swim trunks pointed to the villas across the road. He said the children of party leaders had made off with too much money through corrupt practices in state industries. 
 
 Emblematic of the distance between officials and those they rule, he said, is the fact that the party leaders vacationing here nowadays refuse to go into the sea, which is brown from runoff. Ordinary people swim in those waters, but the leaders take dips in swimming pools, including one built recently that is filled with filtered seawater. 
 
 “What are they good for?” the retired official asked. “What did they inherit from their fathers? They should have inherited the solidarity of the revolution.”
– With China's once-a-decade leadership transition coming this fall, the country's powerbrokers are now in the thick of furious and extremely hush-hush negotiations over who will guide the world's most populous country for the next decade. And in the brutal heat and pollution of the Beijing summer, China's most important politicians head to the beach—specifically, the resort town of Beidaihe, "a Chinese combination of the Jersey Shore and Martha’s Vineyard" that lies 180 miles east of the capital, reports the New York Times. President Hu Jintao tried cracking down on the Beidaihe gatherings when he took power in 2002, but many in the party bucked hard and today the resort town is as important as ever. And in the face of a worsening economic slowdown and the fallout of the Bo Xilai scandal, the struggle for power is growing fiercer, notes the AP. But with expensive private villas and swimming spots for rich party leaders dominating this beach town, many party elders are unhappy with the rising generation of leaders. "What are they good for?" asked one retired official. "What did they inherit from their fathers? They should have inherited the solidarity of the revolution."