In November 2012, Hu was promoted to the powerful Communist Party's Politburo. He was assigned the Communist Party Secretary of Guangdong province, the province's top political office. Hu and another Communist Party's Politburo member Sun Zhengcai Hu were seen as promising candidates in the 'sixth generation' of Chinese leadership. However, Xi Jinping, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, changed the traditional power transfer rule. While Hu was not as unfortunate as Sun who was charged and sentenced (in 2018) due to corruption, he failed to enter the leadership core of CPC - the Politburo Standing Committee.