Hu has served as one of China’s four vice-premiers since 2018 and was a loyal enforcer of President Xi Jinping’s grand poverty alleviation project, promoting trade amid the disruptions of increasing rivalry with the US and the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

But Hu was not considered a member of the president’s inner circle, having not worked for Xi before he took the helm of the party in 2012.

Xi secured a groundbreaking third term as the party’s leader in October, during the five-yearly power reshuffle. He also achieved a larger-than-expected win in the line-up of the top party bodies which are now heavily staffed with his proteges.

Hu is expected to be named as a vice-chair of the CPPCC when it meets for its first session in March and is expected to serve on the body until 2028. There are currently 24 vice-chairs.

Hu raised eyebrows in the early 2000s, when he was quickly promoted despite his youth. For a long time, he was considered a top contender to be among the next generation of Chinese leaders.

His political star continued to rise for more than 20 years as he remained unscarred by one crisis after another.

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In 2008, Hu became governor of the northern Hebei province, where his first task was to contain the damage from a tainted milk scandal that affected 300,000 infants. It was a particularly sensitive time, with the Beijing Summer Olympics putting the country in the global spotlight.

A year later, Hu was appointed regional party secretary of Inner Mongolia, where in 2011 he had to contain major social unrest. Protests by the region’s ethnic Mongolians against government attempts to exploit its natural resources were heightened by the death of a Mongolian herder who was hit by a truck.

In 2012 – the year Xi became party leader – Hu was promoted to the then 25-strong Politburo and given the top party job in the southern province of Guangdong. As the Politburo’s second youngest member, he was considered a front runner for future top jobs.

China’s top judge Zhou Qiang, 63, was also on the list released on Wednesday. He is expected to move to a ceremonial position on the advisory body.

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Xia Baolong, director of the State Council’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office – which implements Beijing’s policy on the two special administrative regions – did not appear on the list, indicating he will step down from his vice-chair role on the CPPCC. His retirement from the HKMAO position is also likely.

Xia, 70, ranked as a deputy national leader, was parachuted in to lead the HKMAO in 2020, after the previous year’s social turmoil in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong’s first post-handover leader, Tung Chee-hwa, 85, will step down from his role as a CPPCC vice-chairman, but his seat will not be taken by the city’s former chief executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor.