China gets ready for transition
Communist Party Congress ushers in leadership change
BEIJING — With a robust defense of one- party rule and a vow to learn from a string of political scandals this year, a senior offi cial Wednesday laid out the agenda for China’s muchanticipated Communist Party Congress, which gets under way Thursday.
The weeklong congress is due to cap a long and at times fractious transition from the current leadership ofHuJintao to his presumed successor, Xi Jinping. If all goes according to plan, Xi and half a dozen other top leaders will be presented to the public next Thursday.
Officially, the new team is to be selected in the coming week by the 2,280 delegates participating in this congress, the 18th in the party’s 91- year history. Delegates are also scheduled to discuss a work report that is to lay out in broad strokes the country’s future course over the next fi ve years, and approve it along with a report on anti- corruption measures.
In fact, much of what will go on during the congress has already been decided. The delegates are voted on by lower- ranking members but based on guidance provided by higher- ups, a process known as “democratic centralism.” So too the work and corruption reports, which will be discussed by the delegates but are not expected to be substantially altered before being approved.
At a news conference Wednesday, the congress’ spokesman and deputy head of Communist Party propaganda, Cai Mingzhao, defended this system as one that allows members to express their views in a controlled setting.
“We must combine centralism on the basis of democracy, with democracy under centralized guidance so that we will create a political situation in the party in which we have both centralism and democracy, both discipline and freedom, both unity of will and personal ease of mind,” Cai said.
He also said the Communist Party had earned the right to rule China.
“The leading position of the Communist Party in China is a decision made by history and by the people,” Cai said. “Political system reform must suit China’s national reality.”
Cai seemed to pour cold water on widespread reports that the party was planning to reform its internal elections, for example by having more candidates than slots for top bodies. That would allow delegates to vote out unpopular leaders.
He said votes would be secret and some multicandidate elections would take place but all would be “in accordance with the electoral method adopted by the congress.”
That is not to say that the congress’s decisions are already widely known.
Still uncertain is who will be standing next to Xi when the top leadership is presented in a week.
This group, known as the Politburo’s Standing Committee, essentially runs China. According to plan, it will include Xi and Li Keqiang, who is expected to take over as head of the government bureaucracy next year.