BEIJING — At least five senior Communist Party officials have arrived at the beachside resort of Beidaihe, including Xi Jinping, the man expected to be the next leader of China, setting the stage for what some analysts expect to be the climactic negotiations over the coming once-a-decade power transition.

For months, party elders and senior officials in Beijing have been quietly jockeying over how to fill the seats of the party’s top governing bodies, the 25-member Politburo and its elite Standing Committee, whose final dispositions are expected to be announced during the Communist Party’s 18th National Congress this fall.

The transition comes at a crucial period for the country. A growing number of voices urge more liberal economic policies and, in some quarters, adjustments to the system of one-party rule; the Internet amplifies public opinion; and China’s presence on the world stage continues to expand. The buildup to the handover of power has been unsettled by the fall of Politburo member Bo Xilai, whose father was one of the party’s founding elite.