Page 1 of
2 SUN WUKONG The
emerging Hu-Wen-Zeng troika By
Wu Zhong, China Editor
HONG KONG - Chinese
President Hu Jintao is in firm command of the
preparations for the Communist Party's 17th
Congress scheduled to be held in the autumn. This
is a sure sign that Hu's authority as the supreme
leader of the party and the country will be truly
established in the upcoming five-yearly party
congress and that he has walked out of the
political shadow of predecessor Jiang Zemin.
Sources in Beijing confirm a report in the
latest issue of The
Mirror, a Chinese-language
pro-Beijing China-watching monthly based in Hong
Kong, that two leading groups have been set up to
take charge of the preparatory works for the party
congress: one to oversee the draft of the keynote
report to be delivered at the opening that will
set the party line for the next five years, the
other to take care of personnel matters -
including the selection of delegates and, more
significant, the election of the new Central
Committee.
With Hu's approval, Premier Wen
Jiabao, now ranking No 2 in the party hierarchy,
has been assigned to head the
political-report-drafting group and Vice President
Zeng Qinghong, now ranking No 5, to lead the
personnel group. This indicates that a Hu-Wen-Zeng
troika has been formed to lead the party's 17th
National Congress and likely to be become the core
of the party's leadership afterward, the sources
say.
This debunks some earlier rumors, one
of which had Jiang demanding that Wen step down if
Hu wanted to force Jia Qingling, ranking No 4 in
the Politburo's Standing Committee and also
chairman of the Chinese People's Political
Consultative Conference, and the ailing Vice
Premier Huang Ju, ranking No 6, to retire at
upcoming congress.
Both Jia and Huang are
seen as Jiang's proteges. Another rumor said Hu
was being urged to cede the presidency to Zeng,
suggesting the two were locked in a power struggle
ahead of the party meeting.
The keynote
political report to a party congress is normally
delivered by the party's leader. In the history of
the Chinese Communist Party, there were a few
exceptions in Mao Zedong's time when the Great
Helmsman had his hand-picked successor read the
report instead, though all of his designated
successors proved to be politically short-lived.
So it is believed the political report
will be delivered by Hu himself, though Wen is now
overseeing its drafting. The Mirror report said
Wen has already recruited elite party theorists
and researchers from top think-tanks into the
drafting group.
The report is expected to
elaborate on Hu's idea of "building a socialist
harmonious society" and "pursuing a harmonious
world". Sources say that following party
tradition, it is essential for Hu to have his own
ideas developed into the party's guiding ideology.
Only in this way can his supreme leadership truly
be established. From this viewpoint the drafting
of the political report is a very important task.
So to have Wen head the drafting group shows Hu
believes the premier will faithfully accomplish
the task.
And the approval of the
political report (which is surely expected) means
Hu's idea will be officially adopted as the party
line. Some sources say the party constitution is
also likely to be revised to include Hu's line as
the party's theoretical guideline parallel with
Deng Xiaoping's "thought" and Jiang's "three
represents" theory.
Adoption of this line
will formally mark the opening of the Hu era. "No
doubt, the next five years will be strongly
branded with the Hu stamp," said Li Ji, former
vice president of the Chinese Academy of Social
Sciences (CASS), in an interview with The Mirror.
In the division of labor in the current
Politburo Standing Committee, Zeng's portfolio is
to oversee the party's construction and
organization affairs - a job Hu himself had
concentrated on until he became party chief in
late 2002. As such, Zeng is concurrently president
of the Central Party School, the training center
for senior cadres. And the party's Central
Organization
Head
Office: Unit B, 16/F, Li Dong Building, No. 9 Li Yuen Street East,
Central, Hong Kong Thailand Bureau:
11/13 Petchkasem Road, Hua Hin, Prachuab Kirikhan, Thailand 77110
