HONG KONG - In the latest sign that next
month's 17th National Congress of the Chinese
Communist Party will be more of a coronation than
a conference, the state-run Xinhua News Agency
announced this week that the party will amend its
constitution to enthrone the political theory of
President Hu Jintao.
That is a sure sign
that Hu, who also serves as the party's general
secretary, will be entering the pantheon of
Chinese leadership alongside party founder Mao
Zedong, paramount leader Deng
Xiaoping and Hu's immediate
predecessor, Jiang Zemin.
Like those who
preceded him, Hu, 64, aspires to be not just his
country's political leader but also its chief
theorist, and the revised constitution is expected
to serve as his platform. Indeed, it has taken
considerably less time for Hu Thought to work its
way into the party charter than it did for the
wisdom of Deng and Jiang to be recognized as
sacrosanct. Deng Xiaoping Theory was not glorified
in the constitution until 1997, the year of Deng's
death, and Jiang had to wait 13 years before his
theory of the "Three Represents" - which calls on
the party to increase China's productivity,
enhance its culture and embody the interests of
its people - became scripture.
The charter
is routinely revised to suit the aims of each
five-yearly congress, and this year the elevation
of Hu is the main party goal. The proposal for the
revision should be approved at the Seventh Plenum
of the 16th Central Committee, scheduled for
October 9, which then should be formally endorsed
at the 17th Party Congress to be convened on
October 15.
By the time the all-important
congress opens, Hu will be honored in the amended
constitution as a great theoretician after only
five years as head of the party and four years as
president. The revised charter will no doubt
mention Hu's "Theory of Scientific Development"
and social initiatives that come under the
ideological umbrella of "Building a Harmonious
Society". The president's "Four Steadfasts" and
"Eight Honors and Eight Shames" may also make the
grade.
But what does all the ideological
sloganeering - not to mention the reams of
official gobbledygook that is written to support
it - tell us about China's next five years under a
leader who will now be the unrivaled master of his
party and his nation? It reveals more than
skeptics might think.
Consider, for
example, Hu's much-ballyhooed "Theory of
Scientific Development". While unscientific and
hardly a theory, it nevertheless points the
country in a clear direction that the world can
only applaud. In contrast to the unfettered
economic growth, environmental degradation and
rampant corruption that characterized Jiang's 10
years as president, Hu aims for more sustainable
economic development guided by a much stronger
ethical code. The former engineer calls this
approach "scientific", but what the Hu doctrine
really adds up to is continued economic growth
tempered by greater energy efficiency and
environmental awareness. The president has also
called for the "moral cultivation" of the party
and the nation as a whole.
This is a
long-overdue shift in emphasis in a country whose
skies are perpetually shrouded in gray and whose
lakes and rivers are choked with pollution. The
recent announcement that China has overtaken the
United States as the world's largest producer of
carbon dioxide - the biggest culprit among the
greenhouse gases that scientists say are the main
cause of global warming - was not a proud moment
in the nation’s development.
Sadly,
China's environment is in such a shambles that it
will take years even to begin to reverse the
damage. Water, land and soil pollution costs the
country more than US$200 billion a year, according
to the State Environmental Protection Agency, or
roughly 10% of its gross domestic product (GDP),
which is nevertheless expected to grow by more
than 11% this year.
The cleanup of China's
environment will prove a daunting task, but the
president's shift of tone will be reflected in any
statements on the economy coming out of next
month's party congress. His goal of greater social
harmony will also get a big boost. With the income
gap between rich and poor growing almost as fast
as China's soaring GDP, the threat of social
unrest is never far from the minds of the
country's leaders. Often lost in the story of
China's economic miracle is the fact that nearly
60% of its 1.3 billion people continue to live in
the largely impoverished countryside.
For
the poorest of the poor, life is getting harder,
not easier, as they find themselves without the
skills necessary to succeed in the increasingly
prosperous cities and without enough income to
enjoy the country's rising standard of living. The
president has pledged to reduce the wealth gap and
bring greater economic and social justice to those
who have been left behind in the economic boom.
Again, he is making all the right noises.
Hu's unwavering message on corruption - a
vice that to date has been an inherent part of
"socialism with Chinese characteristics" - is also
music to the ears of ordinary people. Whereas
Jiang was noted for belting out arias from Peking
and Italian operas, Hu has taken to evoking
Confucius in an attempt to infuse Chinese society
with a keener sense of loyalty, integrity and
social order.
For example, the president's
"Theory of Three Harmonies" - which is clearly an
effort to supplant Jiang's previously enshrined
"Three Represents - is lifted from the great sage,
and the anti-corruption campaign of "Eight Honors
and Eight Shames" is also rooted in Confucian
values.
Speaking this week at an awards
ceremony honoring "moral examples" at the Great
Hall of the People, Hu was quoted by Xinhua as
saying, "A sound ethos within the party should be
cultivated to bring along a healthy ethos among
the general public and government officials, so as
to create harmonious relations between the party
and the masses."
And the president's
battle against corruption has gone beyond
rhetoric. As if to emphasize that times have
changed, Shanghai party boss Chen Liangyu - who
was also a member of the powerful Politburo and a
staunch Jiang ally - was arrested last year on
charges of misusing the city's $1.2 billion
pension fund to make illicit investments in real
estate and other ventures. A raft of other
Shanghai politicos and business executives have
also fallen in connection with the pension
scandal, one of many examples of the drive against
corruption around the country.
Yet
widespread graft continues in Hu's China, as do
the assault on the environment and daily protests
against social and economic injustice. It will
take more than the enshrinement of high-sounding
rhetoric in the party constitution and selective,
high-profile prosecutions of corrupt officials to
turn things around.
What is required is a
fundamental change in China's deeply entrenched
political culture. That is a big challenge for a
mild-mannered technocrat who has cautiously worked
his way to the pinnacle of Chinese politics. There
is much at stake for China - and for a world that
has come to count on China's success. Let's hope
he is up to the task.
Kent Ewing
is a teacher and writer at Hong Kong International
School. He can be reached at
kewing@hkis.edu.hk.
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