BEIJING, CHINA - When Chinese Vice-President Xi Jinping zipped his way through four Asian countries last week, protocol was smashed and timetables were tweaked.

Despite short notice, the Japanese Emperor met the man tipped to succeed Chinese President Hu Jintao in 2012. South Korean President Lee Myung Bak squeezed time for breakfast before hopping on the plane to Copenhagen. Even reclusive Myanmar leader Than Shwe opened his doors.

For a man nominally ranked only sixth in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) hierarchy, Mr Xi was treated like the heir apparent headed for the No. 1 post.

He looked the part, too.

'He's steady, he's quite suave and he is developing the airs of a national leader. He's looking very much like a junior statesman,' said analyst Wang Zhengxu of the China Policy Institute at the University of Nottingham.

Mr Xi is not the only up-and-coming Chinese leader whose public image has been increasingly distinct in the past year.

Four of his peers - the 'fifth generation' politicians slated to take the reins in 2012 - have also become identifiable with particular trademarks, in what could be called a sort of political branding.

Bolstered by their standing in the elite 25-man Politburo of the CCP, they are afforded the national media limelight as they campaign on favourite causes, craft populist images and seek to build portfolios of achievements.

Chongqing party boss Bo Xilai, for example, has had the most successful branding campaign among his peers.

He chose to take on the notorious triads in the south-western municipality, revelling in his new fame as a crime buster who takes on the mafia on behalf of the common man.

'It was a clever thing to do because there is really not much room to show off in Chongqing. He has made his mark,' said Hong Kong-based analyst Joseph Cheng.

Another provincial chief, Mr Wang Yang of southern Guangdong, has chosen a less eye-catching, but no less important, label of being a liberal reformer.

He even invited New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman to the province and asked him to advertise it to the rest of the world in late 2008, and burnished his liberal credentials by holding a rare press conference with foreign journalists in July.

But if the provincial leaders like Mr Bo and Mr Wang saw a need for flashier moves to ensure that they are not forgotten, their peers in Beijing tend to play it straighter, safely dovetailing their 'brands' with their official roles.

Mr Xi, for example, has cultivated the 'junior statesman' role largely through his position as Vice-President.

Similarly, Vice-Premier Li Keqiang is increasingly seen as a policy man because of his job in the State Council assisting Premier Wen Jiabao.

Said Beijing-based analyst Russell Leigh Moses: 'Li is gradually emerging as a figure who understands that stable politics in China can best be sustained with good policies, and that the best way to make good policy is to engage with a variety of high-profile issues.

'A technocratic elite does not run China, but if it does, Li will be leading that charge.'

Organisation chief Li Yuanchao has also been leveraging on his position in charge of personnel in the CCP, styling himself as the moral voice of the party and slamming womanising, gambling and corruption among officials.

But whatever their causes or pet projects, the brands they have adopted are invariably meant to endear them to the people.

Whether it is cracking down on triads or standing up against graft, the leaders have all adopted minxin gongcheng, or 'engineering projects to warm the hearts of the people'.

The aim, said analysts, is promotion. All five are gunning not only for a seat in the party's top council, the nine-man Politburo Standing Committee, during the next reshuffle in 2012, but also to snare as plump a position within the committee as possible.

To do so, the candidates need to impress the leaders as well as the party's 70 million rank-and-file, especially as the CCP tries to introduce intra-party democracy and shift its emphasis from patronage to meritocracy in its selection of top leaders.

'Under Mao (Zedong), anything goes. But now, the party is facing so many challenges and it is moving towards a more merit-based system,' said Dr Wang of the University of Nottingham.

'The party will be paying more and more attention to performance when it chooses its next leader in 2012.'

This article was first published in The Straits Times.