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2 SUN
WUKONG Balancing act
at the party congress By Wu
Zhong, China Editor
requisitions in
Beijing when he served as mayor and party chief of
the Chinese capital from 1996-2002.
Earlier speculation had it that the 17th
Party Congress might reduce the number of members
of the Politburo Standing Committee to seven from
the current nine. But the Beijing sources say Hu
wants the new Standing Committee still to have
nine members so that younger elites can join the
power core for a
smooth power transition five
years from now.
Thus the new Politburo
Standing Committee will have up to five vacancies
to be filled by new blood. The sources say the two
most likely candidates are Li Keqiang, 52, and Yu
Zhengsheng, 62. Yu, currently a Politburo member
and party chief of Hubei province, is from a
veteran party cadre's family and hence considered
one of the princelings. Li Keqiang, currently a
member of the Central Committee, is a key member
of the Communist Youth League (CYL) faction and a
close protege of Hu.
In addition to Li
Keqiang and Yu Zhengsheng, three current Politburo
members, Zhang Dejiang, Wang Zhaoguo and Zhou
Yongkang, will be promoted into the Politburo
Standing Committee in the 17th Party Congress,
according to a news release by Hong Kong-based
Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy.
Zhang Dejiang, 61, now party chief of
Guangdong province, is considered a protege of
Jiang Zemin. He will also replace Huang Ju as
executive vice premier, the Center said. Wang
Zhaoguo, 66, now also the first vice chairman of
the CPPCC, will replace Wu Guanzheng to head to
party's Central Commission for Disciplinary
Inspection. Wang also originated from the CYL and
thus considered to belong to the CYL faction.
Zhou Yongkang, 65, now is also Minister of
Public Security, is said to be a protege of Jiang.
The Center said he will replace Luo Gan to oversee
the country's law enforcement. The Center also
said Li Keqiang will replace Zeng Qinghong as vice
president, a post tipped to be a potential
successor to Hu. Li will also take over Zeng's
portfolio to oversee the party's organization and
personnel affairs. Zeng will then replace Jia
Qinglin as CPPCC chairman.
And Yu
Zhengsheng will replace Li Changchun to oversee
the party's propaganda and ideological affairs,
according to the Center. The report cannot be
immediately verified independently. However, if it
is true, then the new Politburo Standing Committee
will be a result of a power balance among the Hu's
CYL faction, Jiang's clique and Zeng's
princelings, with Hu having an upper hand.
But the sources also warn that such
arrangement could change at any moment in the
run-up to the elections in the 17th Party Congress
because of continuing power struggles to compete
for the key posts. Also recently, more corruption
scandals involving senior officials have been
exposed.
For instance, Minister of Finance
Jin Renqing resigned last week amid unconfirmed
reports that he is under investigation. If some
rising political star should be found involved in
such cases, then he or she is finished, which
would then force the power center to change its
reshuffle plans. Despite this, recent signs indeed
further suggest that Hu is in a dominant position
in the preparations for the 17th Party Congress.
The communique of the August 28 Politburo
meeting, which set the date for the 17th Party
Congress, said the congress will "uphold reform
and opening up, promote scientific development and
social harmony". This indicates that Hu's ideas of
scientific development and social harmony will be
endorsed as the new party line in the 17th
Congress.
Another development is that Meng
Xuenong was recently named governor of Shanxi
province, replacing Yu Xuejun. Meng, 58, started
his political career as a CYL official in Beijing.
He became vice mayor of Beijing in 1998 and then
mayor in the beginning of 2003. But soon
thereafter he was sacked, together with health
minister Zhang Yongkang - a protege of Jiang - for
covering up the outbreak of SARS (severe acute
respiratory syndrome) in the Chinese capital. It
was then said that Hu sacrificed Meng to pull down
Zhang in his first power struggle with Jiang.
Hu apparently has not forgotten his
protege, so four years later, Meng is put in a
position to lead a province again. And the
restoration of Meng in officialdom is evident of
Hu's dominance.
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