The 19th National Congress of the Communist Party will open on October 18, with 2300 delegates in attendance.

During its course, Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to consolidate his grip on power for the next five years as the party's general secretary.

The key policies set for China's next five year's at the week-long meeting will have global implications.

Dubbed the Chinese version of Game of Thrones, the make-up of China's most senior political ranks, the Politburo's standing committee, will be reshuffled and closely watched, to see who is in and who is out.

The hot tip in the one-party state is that Xi's followers will be in the ascendant. Already, there has been the surprise axing from the race to join top ranks of one of China's political rising stars.

A month ago, Sun Zhengcai, 53, the youngest member of the Politburo and the party boss of the populous inland city of Chongqing, was dumped and put under investigation.

Chongqing appears cursed for political aspirants. In the lead up to the last national congress in 2012, the Chongqing party chief Bo Xilai was dramatically ousted and now sits in jail convicted of corruption.

Based on their age, only two of the seven member standing committee - Xi and premier Li Keqiang - are expected to stay on. But there is speculation that Xi's close ally and corruption fighter, Wang Qishan, may beat convention and stay.

Xi, already referred to as the "core" leader by the party, may also further entrench his influence in the history books by proposing a key theory to be studied by millions of party members alongside those of past communist strongmen Jiang Zemin, Deng Xiaoping and Mao Zedong.

Many of the key decisions about China's next five-year road map have been decided in advanced at a closed-door seaside conclave at Beihaide last month.