Five years on, why are China’s political stars shying from the limelight?

As the Communist Party’s twice-a-decade national congress and its key power transition approaches, most of the party’s political stars are keeping a low profile on the sidelines of the annual session of the top legislature.

Things were different at the session five years ago, just ahead of the leadership reshuffle at the party’s 18th national congress.

The open-to-foreign-media sessions of the Xinjiang deputies of the National People’s Congress were focal points for journalists.

This was under media-savvy Xinjiang party chief Zhang Chunxian, also a member of the decision-making Politburo, before he was replaced by former Tibetan party boss Chen Quanguo in August last year.

Zhang used to take a couple of questions raised by either foreign or Hong Kong reporters. But this year, Chen, who has his own shot at a seat in the party’s next Politburo, didn’t even bother to show up.

Chen is like most regional party secretaries these days, who will usually only address a handful of questions that were prepared before the sessions began.