Changing of the guard in Beijing

Chinese puzzle: Country’s future at stake as Communist Party chooses new leaders

Old problems and new faces alike emerge in China as issues of corruption, pollution and sustaining economic growth topping the agenda of the once-a-decade convention of the Congress of the Communist Party.

RT,

7 November, 2012

Expect no surprises here: As the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party assembles, the country faces a major overhaul of the Politburo Standing Committee, the de facto ruling body.

The Committee has strict age requirements, forcing seven out of the nine members to depart and making room for new and younger faces in Chinese politics. They will have to bear the brunt of the responsibility of making sure China stays a top player in world politics and economics, while also solving some burning internal issues.

The roster of the future leaders of the CPC is already well-known to most of China. The top CPC Politburo members – President Hu Jintao and Premier of the State Council Wen Jiabao – will be stepping down. They will more than likely be replaced with Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang, who will be the only two remaining members of the Politburo.

Chinese President Hu Jintao will be stepping down (AFP Photo / Saeed Khan)

Both men hail from very different backgrounds, and are representative of the two major factions within the Communist Party of China.

The heir apparent for the top post is Xi Jinping. Currently a vice-president, Xi is part of the so-called ‘elite’ or ‘princeling’ faction – the progeny of the Chinese revolutionaries, with well-established roots in the party system.

Xi already has a good grasp of the challenges facing the country. His supporters favor stronger state involvement, believing it will give the government a better grip on China’s internal affairs and foreign policy.

Li Keqiang, in turn, comes from a humble background, having risen through the party ranks. He is a member of the second faction of the Communist Party, which insists on greater rule of law and less state involvement.

Both, however, will have to put heavy emphasis on corruption – a glaring flaw in China’s laundry list of recent accomplishments. A recent scandal involving one of the country’s most promising politicians, Bo Xilai, showed that the issue is still a pressing problem.

Disgraced politician Bo Xilai, Communist Party secretary of Chongqing (AFP Photo / Liu Jin)

Bo was one of the country’s leading political figures, and was being groomed for a future as a top official in the party. Then, l his wife was mired in the murder of an English businessman, who was reportedly handling Bo’s family’s offshore accounts.

Once exposed, Bo fell off the radar and was dismissed from the Communist party – an affair which some party members called a ‘profound lesson’ in corruption among the country’s high-ranking leaders, and implied that ways of tackling corruption will become one of the key issues facing the Congress.

The Communist Party of China, or CPC, has proven to its merits by guiding the country to become the world’s second-biggest economy. China boasts the world’s greatest amount of foreign exchange reserves, and is the world’s largest exporter and manufacturer.

A drastic decrease in the number of people living in poverty and a growing middle class also attest to the ruling party’s leadership.

The Chinese space program have also progressed enough to force top US military officials to admit that Beijing’s program may eventually dent America’s military supremacy.

Yet even with these numerous successes, China is not totally insulated from troubles.

Analysts believe the biggest problem facing the future Chinese government is maintaining economic growth, and simultaneously ensuring that all members of society benefit from it.

The country also suffers from an uneven distribution of wealth, between the better-off coastal regions and the poorer inland areas. The wealth gap has reached astounding levels in some regions.

Awareness of natural resources and environmental pollution is becoming more widespread among China’s population, to the point of eliciting protests. In fact, environmental concerns are among the top issues the public is hoping the new government will address immediately after the 18th Congress convenes.

This will be the first time in modern Chinese history that leaders won’t be handpicked by Deng Xioaping, who tapped Hu Jintao for the top job back in 2002. Although all incoming senior leaders have been picked in clandestine negotiations by the current party elders, there is nevertheless a grain of intrigue in speculation over how the new Communist leaders will oversee China for the next decade.

Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping, the man who is expected to become China's next president (AFP Photo / Feng Li)

The Communist Party of China, or CPC, has proven to its merits by guiding the country to become the world’s second-biggest economy. China boasts the world’s greatest amount of foreign exchange reserves, and is the world’s largest exporter and manufacturer.

A drastic decrease in the number of people living in poverty and a growing middle class also attest to the ruling party’s leadership.

The Chinese space program have also progressed enough to force top US military officials to admit that Beijing’s program may eventually dent America’s military supremacy.

Yet even with these numerous successes, China is not totally insulated from troubles.

Analysts believe the biggest problem facing the future Chinese government is maintaining economic growth, and simultaneously ensuring that all members of society benefit from it.

The country also suffers from an uneven distribution of wealth, between the better-off coastal regions and the poorer inland areas. The wealth gap has reached astounding levels in some regions.

Awareness of natural resources and environmental pollution is becoming more widespread among China’s population, to the point of eliciting protests. In fact, environmental concerns are among the top issues the public is hoping the new government will address immediately after the 18th Congress convenes.

This will be the first time in modern Chinese history that leaders won’t be handpicked by Deng Xioaping, who tapped Hu Jintao for the top job back in 2002. Although all incoming senior leaders have been picked in clandestine negotiations by the current party elders, there is nevertheless a grain of intrigue in speculation over how the new Communist leaders will oversee China for the next decade.