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China's vice-president loses post
Zeng Qinghong was appointed vice-president in March 2003
Three of China's most senior leaders, including Vice-President Zeng Qinghong, are to step down.
Zeng and two other politicians, Luo Gan and Wu Guanzheng, were dropped from the Communist Party's central committee at its five-yearly congress.
The announcement is seen as the first stage in a widely expected reshuffle in favour of a new generation of leaders.
The three men cannot now be elected to the standing committee on Monday when their replacements will be named.
The nine-member standing committee is the country's supreme decision-making body. A fourth member, Huang Ju, died in the summer and will also be replaced.
The congress also decided to include President Hu Jintao's "scientific concept of development" in the party constitution.
President Hu is widely expected to be given a second term as general secretary of the party when the central committee meets on Monday.
New generation
At the final day of the 17th Communist Party Congress in Beijing's Great Hall of the People, delegates elected a central committee of 204 full members.
CPC ELECTION PROCESS
2,200 congress delegates elect new central committee
Election by secret ballot
Central committee elects new politburo
2012 president likely to come from this politburo
Leadership race secrecy
Q&A: Party Congress
How China is ruled
Vice-President Zeng, 68, was not amongst those named.
His absence means he cannot be elected to the party's politburo or the smaller standing committee, whose members the central committee will elect on Monday.
Wu Guanzheng, in charge of party discipline, and Luo Gan, who oversaw national security as head of the party's politics and law committee, also stepped aside.
Vice-Premier Wu Yi, Vice Premier Zeng Peiyan and Defence Minister Cao Gangchuan were also not named.
Mr Zeng, whose father was a veteran revolutionary, was ranked fifth in the party hierarchy and has previously been linked with former President Jiang Zemin.
His retirement could be taken as a sign that President Hu is solidifying his grip on the country's political system, says the BBC's Michael Bristow in Beijing.
China's Communist Party still tolerates little dissent
The announcement prepares the way for the appointment of China's next generation of leaders.
There has been considerable speculation about who will be part of that new generation, our correspondent says.
The congress was closely stage-managed from start to finish, with delegates singing the left-wing anthem the Internationale at the closing ceremony, says our correspondent.
But as delegates left the Great Hall of the People on the edge of Tiananmen Square, a shouting protester was bundled away by police.
'Princeling'
Mr Zeng is a Beijing-trained engineer who also took part in tough trade negotiations with the United States.
A new generation of Chinese leaders will soon be appointed
He belonged to the elite group of China's "princelings", the children of veteran Communist Party revolutionaries.
His father, Zeng Shan, was a Red Army veteran and went on to become vice-mayor of Shanghai in 1949 and minister of internal affairs in 1960.
His mother, Deng Liuqin, was in charge of the Shanghai-based East China Kindergarten where the children of many senior officials were brought up.
Mr Zeng worked as an aide to Mr Jiang when he was Shanghai Party secretary in the mid-1980s.
When Mr Jiang was transferred to Beijing after the 1989 pro-democracy student movement, the one adviser he chose to take with him was Mr Zeng.
Mr Zeng was elected a member of the Communist Party's standing committee in November 2002, five months before he became vice-president under Mr Hu.
Zeng Qinghong was appointed vice-president in March 2003
Three of China's most senior leaders, including Vice-President Zeng Qinghong, are to step down.
Zeng and two other politicians, Luo Gan and Wu Guanzheng, were dropped from the Communist Party's central committee at its five-yearly congress.
The announcement is seen as the first stage in a widely expected reshuffle in favour of a new generation of leaders.
The three men cannot now be elected to the standing committee on Monday when their replacements will be named.
The nine-member standing committee is the country's supreme decision-making body. A fourth member, Huang Ju, died in the summer and will also be replaced.
The congress also decided to include President Hu Jintao's "scientific concept of development" in the party constitution.
President Hu is widely expected to be given a second term as general secretary of the party when the central committee meets on Monday.
New generation
At the final day of the 17th Communist Party Congress in Beijing's Great Hall of the People, delegates elected a central committee of 204 full members.
CPC ELECTION PROCESS
2,200 congress delegates elect new central committee
Election by secret ballot
Central committee elects new politburo
2012 president likely to come from this politburo
Leadership race secrecy
Q&A: Party Congress
How China is ruled
Vice-President Zeng, 68, was not amongst those named.
His absence means he cannot be elected to the party's politburo or the smaller standing committee, whose members the central committee will elect on Monday.
Wu Guanzheng, in charge of party discipline, and Luo Gan, who oversaw national security as head of the party's politics and law committee, also stepped aside.
Vice-Premier Wu Yi, Vice Premier Zeng Peiyan and Defence Minister Cao Gangchuan were also not named.
Mr Zeng, whose father was a veteran revolutionary, was ranked fifth in the party hierarchy and has previously been linked with former President Jiang Zemin.
His retirement could be taken as a sign that President Hu is solidifying his grip on the country's political system, says the BBC's Michael Bristow in Beijing.
China's Communist Party still tolerates little dissent
The announcement prepares the way for the appointment of China's next generation of leaders.
There has been considerable speculation about who will be part of that new generation, our correspondent says.
The congress was closely stage-managed from start to finish, with delegates singing the left-wing anthem the Internationale at the closing ceremony, says our correspondent.
But as delegates left the Great Hall of the People on the edge of Tiananmen Square, a shouting protester was bundled away by police.
'Princeling'
Mr Zeng is a Beijing-trained engineer who also took part in tough trade negotiations with the United States.
A new generation of Chinese leaders will soon be appointed
He belonged to the elite group of China's "princelings", the children of veteran Communist Party revolutionaries.
His father, Zeng Shan, was a Red Army veteran and went on to become vice-mayor of Shanghai in 1949 and minister of internal affairs in 1960.
His mother, Deng Liuqin, was in charge of the Shanghai-based East China Kindergarten where the children of many senior officials were brought up.
Mr Zeng worked as an aide to Mr Jiang when he was Shanghai Party secretary in the mid-1980s.
When Mr Jiang was transferred to Beijing after the 1989 pro-democracy student movement, the one adviser he chose to take with him was Mr Zeng.
Mr Zeng was elected a member of the Communist Party's standing committee in November 2002, five months before he became vice-president under Mr Hu.
