This Sunday, we will learn the new Chinese leadership for the next five years.

While Xi Jinping is widely tipped to continue for a third term or beyond, the rest of the next leadership is obscured from public view even at this advanced stage of the 20th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party.

That is contrary to past congresses during which the media would have obtained official "leaks" about who would be doing what for the next five years.

The current Politburo Standing Committee has seven members.

Prior to this congress, some so-called insiders speculated that the size of the standing committee could be expanded from seven seats to nine seats in the interest of checks and balances within the party.

Will that be the case? Or, rather, is it more likely that the number will remain unchanged at seven?

The latter seems more credible.

In the power shakeup, Li Keqiang is due to step down as premier - a position that ranks second in the Politburo Standing Committee after the party general secretary.

Although Li's predecessor Wen Jiabao left the standing committee completely after finishing his premiership, there was at least one precedent in which the ex-premier stayed in the ruling body to play a new role.

In 1998, Li Peng became the National People's Congress chairman after stepping down as premier.

Will Li Keqiang follow Wen's path and leave the top ruling body totally or, rather, take a cue from Li Peng to stay on to play a new role in the new standing committee?

The former appears to be more likely since Xi's theorist tzar Wang Huning is said to be due for promotion to become the next NPC chairman.

Li Keqiang's imminent departure also leaves open the vital question of who will be the country's next premier.

A few names have been floated as probable candidates, including CPPCC chairman and standing committee member Wang Yang, vice premier Hu Chunhua and Shanghai party secretary Li Qiang. The latter is known to be a Xi loyalist.

If the old political norm of checks and balances within the party is to be replaced by a new normal of concentration of power in Xi as the supreme leader like Mao Zedong, it would make sense that Li Qiang stands a better chance than Wang and Hu despite the Shanghai party secretary's jaw-dropping performance during the Covid pandemic.

The party is set to wind up the congress tomorrow, with its 2,200-plus delegates electing about 200 to the party's central committee. This will then elect 25 to the Politburo which, in turn, will appoint the next Politburo Standing Committee, which will be unveiled on Sunday.

As the congress proceeds, people are also monitoring closely whether the mainland's strict zero or dynamic-zero Covid policy will be relaxed after it finishes.

Despite a Bloomberg report that mainland officials may shorten the quarantine period for inbound travelers, it is still far too early to say this with any certainty.

Leading questions soon to be answered