Page 2 of 2 SUN
WUKONG The
emerging Hu-Wen-Zeng
troika By Wu Zhong, China Editor
Department, which handles the
appointment and promotion of senior party and
government officials, is directly under Zeng's
supervision.
Given this portfolio, it is
logical for Zeng to be assigned to head the
preparatory group on personnel affairs.
Nevertheless, it still shows that Zeng, who used
to be regarded as a protege of Jiang and a key
member of the so-called Shanghai clique, has won
the
trust and become an ally of
Hu.
The reshuffle of personnel in the
upcoming party meeting is so important to Hu that
it would simply be unthinkable to have a rival in
charge. Hu needs loyal cadres to implement his
line. Or, as Mao put it: "Once the party line is
established, cadres become the key factor" for
implementation of the line.
Zeng's group
has first to supervise the selection of 2,200
deputies from the 38 constituencies representing
72 million Communist Party members across the
country. They include the 31 mainland provinces,
the party's central units, the central government
units, the People's Liberation Army, the
paramilitary People's Armed Police, the
state-owned enterprises, financial institutions
under the central government, and the All-China
Federation of Taiwan Compatriots (supposedly
representing Taiwan).
According to the
rules, 70% of the 2,200 deputies will be party and
government officials. The 200-odd full members and
150-odd alternative members of the party's new
Central Committee will be elected from among these
2,200 deputies during the congress. So another
important task for Zeng's group is to work out a
list of candidates for the new Central Committee.
Normally, all party chiefs and governors
of the 31 mainland provinces are on the Central
Committee. Thus all provinces are required to hold
their local party congresses to pick new
provincial party committees and party chiefs. This
is to ensure that new blood will be injected into
the new Central Committee. So far, 15 or so
provinces, mostly in central and western China,
have already convened their regional congresses.
But economically important regions on the east
coast such as Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and
Guangdong have yet to hold their provincial-level
congresses.
Analysts say Zeng will not be
able to work out the list of candidates for the
new Central Committee before the end of June when
official reshuffles in all provinces are to be
completed.
For this new round, Hu has
instructed that strenuous efforts must be made to
prevent the promotion of "ill" officials. In
Chinese, the word "ill'' in the context of his
speech has a double meaning. It refers not only to
physical sickness but also to evil deeds such as
corruption.
There are reasons for Hu to be
concerned with the state of heath of those to be
promoted. In the past, a couple of Politburo
members died soon after they were elevated to the
power center. The current example is Huang Ju, who
is very ill, reportedly suffering from cancer of
the pancreas since early last year. Hu's
instruction signals that Huang definitely will
have to say goodbye to his political career this
autumn.
But Hu is surely more worried that
corrupt officials might be promoted. In the past
quite a number of corrupt officials were promoted
to higher positions. Disgraced Shanghai party
chief Chen Liangyu scorned the Central Commission
for Disciplinary Inspection's warning that his
secretary Qin Yu was suspected of involvement in a
corruption scam, but insisted on promoting Qin to
head a district in the city. Eventually, the
CCDI's investigations of Qin led to the exposure
of Chen himself. This has become a well-known
example of "ill-promotion" among Chinese
officials.
Sources say that an important
condition in the selection of deputies to the
party congress and of candidates for the new
Central Committee is that they must be free of any
suspicion of corruption. In this regard, the CCDI
and regional party anti-graft watchdogs may play a
role in the selections.
However, given the
runaway protectionism at regional levels and
nepotism in today's China, it will indeed be a
backbreaking, if not impossible, mission for
Zeng's group to be sure that all party cadres
promoted ahead and during the party's 17th
National Congress are clean.
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