"If the party congress were delayed, it's to (decide) how to deal with the legacy of Bo Xilai," Liu said.
"It's like dinner being put off because cooking was abruptly disrupted and (the party) had to attend to other matters. Now it's back to cooking," Liu added.
The State Council Information Office, or the cabinet, and the Communist Party spokesman's office, declined to comment.
POLITICAL SCANDAL
Bo was sacked as leader of China's biggest municipality, Chongqing, in March and suspended from the politburo last month after his wife, businesswoman-lawyer Gu Kailai, emerged as chief suspect in the poisoning of a British expatriate businessman, Neil Heywood, who was once a family friend of the Bo household.
Trouble for the charismatic Bo began in February when his Chongqing police chief, Wang Lijun, sought asylum in a U.S. consulate, apparently afraid for his life after confronting Bo with evidence of his wife's involvement in Heywood's death, sources familiar with the police investigation have said.
Wang left the consulate into the custody of central government officials. His actions led to an official effort by Beijing to publicly discredit Bo, a "princeling", whose father was a close ally of late paramount leader Deng Xiaoping.
Bo's political elimination has opened the way for fresh jockeying among rival candidates for the standing committee, interrupting what is usually a carefully choreographed process.
The new standing committee members will start in their new roles during the parliamentary session in March, when the cabinet will also undergo a sweeping reshuffle.
By delaying the congress, the sources said, the new leaders would have to wait only two to four months between the news of their appointments and the time they start in their new roles, compared with up to six months if congress convenes on schedule.
A delay could also give Premier Wen Jiabao more time to see through some urgent, unfinished reforms.
Sources close to the central bank and securities regulator have said they see a window of opportunity this year to push through small reforms already agreed, such as providing more direct access to capital markets and making it easier to move foreign currency in and out of China.
Skeptics say it is hard to see Wen delivering a flurry of far-reaching change in his remaining months in charge after nine years in power with little to show on the reform front.
One long-time and well-connected U.S.-based investor in China said there were two ways to interpret a congress delay.
"One is to say that the leadership is in turmoil and that China is fighting a serious challenge to reform. That will be quite upsetting to the markets, as it may be seen as a challenge from the like-minded allies of Bo Xilai," he said.
"The second interpretation is that China is trying to cope with the challenges posed by the shift in the global economic order and does not want to move rashly. That is not positive for markets, either," said the investor, who declined to be named.
The new leadership line-up is likely to be hammered out around July or August when incumbent leaders and party elders go to the beach resort of Beidaihe for their annual informal gathering to discuss personnel and policy in secluded, tightly guarded villas.
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