China could scrap an informal rule barring its top Communist party officials from beginning a new term at age 68, a senior official hinted — a move that could open the door for anti-corruption tsar Wang Qishan to stay in office following next year’s leadership reshuffle. 

Deng Maosheng, a director at the party’s Central Research Office, dismissed as “folklore” the idea that there is a binding rule on age, in a rare briefing from the secretive party late on Monday. Age limits “are party practices that can be sometimes adjusted as needed,” he said.

The Communist party, in power since 1949, has few set rules for determining its top leadership, relying instead on precedent, personal loyalties and an elaborate, multi-generational game of strategy. Those rules are back in play as president and party chief Xi Jinping tries to rearrange the chess board to cement his own influence ahead of a second term that starts next year.