China's summer political season has arrived. Chinese Communist Party leaders -- retired and incumbent -- have gathered at the seaside resort town of Beidaihe in Hebei province to hold their annual, but informal and secretive, discussions on the state of the nation.
Three generations of Chinese leaders: Hu Jintao, left, Xi Jinping and Jiang Zemin. Xi is thought to be attending the annual summer conclave in Beidaihe, but without the most powerful party elders. (Nikkei montage/Kyodo/Yusuke Hinata)
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