China's ruling Communist Party has
launched its national congress, a pivotal event
that ushers in a new set of top leaders for the
next decade. More than 2,200 delegates gathered at
Beijing's Great Hall of the People on Thursday for
the start of the week-long session that will
install Vice President Xi Jinping as the party's
new general-secretary.
The meeting is the
start of a carefully choreographed but still
fraught power transfer in which President Hu
Jintao and most of the senior leadership begin to
relinquish office to younger leaders. Addressing
the gathering, Hu said that corruption threatened
the party and the state, and promised political
reform.
"If we fail to handle this issue
[corruption] well, it could prove fatal to the
party, and even cause the collapse of the party
and the fall
of the state," Hu said in
an opening speech. "Reform of the political
structure is an important part of China's overall
reform. We must continue to make both active and
prudent efforts to carry out the reform of the
political structure and make people's democracy
more extensive, fuller in scope and sounder in
practice."
Patrick Chovanec, an economics
professor at Tsinghua University, told Al Jazeera
that he doubted China would implement major
reforms.
"When we hear the words political
reform, we tend to think elections and independent
judiciary. Those things are not really what they
mean," he said. "They mean perhaps having two
party members running for an office, instead of
one party member.
"I don't think that
necessarily we may see big steps. But maybe we
will because with the rising middle class in China
there is a lot of pressure for people to have a
greater say in the decisions that affect them."
Economic reform Al Jazeera's
Mike Hanna, reporting from Beijing, said that his
speech also emphasized economic development and
improving the country's education system. He said
that Hu's speech noticed "the importance of
spreading education as widely as possible. He says
education is the engine by which developments
within China can continue.
"And it has
been 10 years of rule which has seen massive
changes in China in economic development,
unprecedented since perhaps the British industrial
revolution way back in the 18th century," he said.
Hu will give up his role as party chief to
anointed successor Vice President Xi Jinping. Xi
then takes over state duties at the annual meeting
of parliament in March. Xi, 59, has been second in
command to Hu since 2008.
Along with the
rest of the future leadership, he will take the
helm amid growing pressure for the party to reform
to curb rising corruption and encourage economic
growth, which recently slowed to its lowest
quarterly rate since 2009.
The congress is
a public gathering of 2,268 delegates drawn from
the 82 million-member party where the real
deal-making is done by a few dozen power-brokers
behind the scenes.
Eight out of 10 Chinese
want political reform, according to a survey
published on Wednesday by a state-run newspaper.
The poll, published by the Global Times newspaper,
found that 81% of people in seven major cities
said they supported political reform, with 66%
feeling the government should face greater public
scrutiny.
The Global Times is linked to
the People's Daily, the mouthpiece of the ruling
Communist Party, and the decision to publish the
survey appeared to indicate the party wanted to be
seen to be acknowledging the calls.
While
party leaders routinely express vague lip service
to some form of future political reform, the
Communists retain iron-clad control of Chinese
power and multi-party democracy is firmly off the
agenda.
Preparations for the congress have
been rocked by the months-long controversy over
former senior leader Bo Xilai. Bo, the former
party boss in the central city of Chongqing, was
once seen as a candidate for promotion to the
party's top ranks. But he was brought down earlier
this year by murder allegations against his wife.
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