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Stories tagged with: 17th Party Congress (117)

• Elite China Think-tank Issues Political Reform Blueprint

  

  Scholars at the Central Party School have issued a “comprehensive political system reform plan” which warns that a failure to liberalize and ease political controls will lead to economic trouble and increased corruption. The report, titled “”Storming the Fortress: A Research Report on China’s Political System Reform after the 17th Party Congress” was completed after the Party Congress but is only now publicly available. Reuters reports:

  This is no manifesto for outright democracy. The authors say the Party must keep overall control and “elite” decision-making will help China achieve lasting economic prosperity by pushing past obstacles to economic reform.

  But the 366-page report give a strikingly detailed blueprint of how some elite advisers see political relaxation unfolding, with three phases of reform in the next 12 years, including restricting the Party’s powers and expanding the rights of citizens, reporters, religious believers and lawmakers.

  “Until now political reform has been scattered and inconsequential,” Wang Guixiu, a professor at the Party School not involved in the study, told Reuters. “Real political reform needs a substantive plan of action, and there are some scholars and officials who believe that’s what is needed now.”

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  • February 18, 2008 11:22 PM

• Grassroots Democracy According To Hu Jintao - Zhan Chengfu (詹成付)

  

  From China Elections and Governance:

  … After a preliminary study, I feel that the 17th CPC political report possesses several new and important features in regards to the issue of grassroots democracy.

  First, grassroots democracy is given more prominent emphasis:

  The emphasis is given in three areas. First of all, fostering the development of grassroots democracy is an integral part of the Chinese Communist Party’s goal of achieving a well-off society by the year 2020. This is a continuation of the theme of the political report of the 16th Party Congress. Secondly, it is an integral part of embarking on the road of developing socialism with Chinese characteristics. This is an expansion of the concept rendered by the 16th Party Congress. In the past, when dwelling on democracy, the focus has always been on the people’s congress system, multi-party cooperation and autonomy in regions inhabited by ethnic minorities. Grassroots democracy was always an afterthought. Now, it is elevated to the same level of the other three functional democracies in China. Thirdly, there is an entire section devoted to grassroots democracy in the part of the political report entitled “steadfastly pursue socialist democratic politics”. This is unprecedented in all previous political reports. This arrangement has raised the position of grassroots democracy in China’s quest for more expansive democratization and bestowed upon itself new missions. [Full Text]

  Zhan Chengfu (詹成付) is the director general of the Department of Basic-Level Governance of the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

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  • December 30, 2007 11:02 PM

• China’s 17th Party Congress: Maintaining Delicate Balances - David Shambaugh

  

  From Brookings Institution website:

  … The Congress itself was a meticulously scripted event, with all decisions taken in secret behind closed doors. The public sessions were carefully stage-managed political theater (including the “press conferences”). The much-anticipated changes in the leadership hierarchy were held until the final day, when the new nine-member Politburo Standing Committee was unveiled. Such cautiousness reflects both the personal style of preeminent leader Hu Jintao, and also the institutional nature of the CCP system.

  The policy substance of speeches and documents released at the Congress was not notable for bold new visions or policy pronouncements”being more a series of slogans and regurgitation of policies undertaken over the past five years since the 16th Congress. While not necessarily new, these policy documents nonetheless evince a party-state that is aware of its many problems and challenges, and has developed a series of programs to address these issues. [Full Text]

  David Shambaugh is Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, Director of The China Policy Program in the Elliott School of International Affairs at The George Washington University. Read also China’s 17th Party Congress: Leadership, not Policy by Kerry Brown.

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  • November 6, 2007 6:17 PM

• Preparations for the Welcoming of Secretary Li - A Killed Report

  

  After photos of the elaborate ceremony welcoming Pizhou party secretary Li Lianyu home from the 17th Party Congress spread online, local officials, including Li himself, claimed that the outpouring of support was a “spontaneous” act. In the meantime, discussion and comments about this event in the major online forums have been banned. A netizen on Wenxue city exposed a report that was reportedly killed by a Chinese newspaper, revealing the extensive preparations that went into Li’s welcoming ceremony. Summarized and translated by CDT:

  The story was about how the party secretary of Pizhou city, Jiangsu, Li Lianyu, was welcomed home by thousands of local residents after he participated in the 17th Party Congress in Beijing.

  That day, at 5:30 in the evening, Century Avenue Road in the suburbs of the county was congested, which is rare. Firecrackers and fireworks were set off, suona was playing loudly, lion dances were performed, and big crowds were watching. Following a police escort, a shuttle bus covered with red silk drove slowly down the road. Then a middle-aged man got out and waved to the crowds.

  This was Li Lianyu.

  The previous day, city officials made arrangements to welcome Li, including installing brand new billboards along the highway, red banners hanging over office buildings, and colorful flags which stretched several hundred meters.

  The village in the far west was the first one to welcome Li. Local villagers recalled that beginning at 4:00 pm, 200 villagers and officials were waiting at the junction. At noon, every villager received instructions to convene with the village cadres to welcome Li. The loudest fireworks and ten meter-long banners were purchased for the welcoming ceremony.

  

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  • November 2, 2007 9:41 PM

• China at a Historic Crossroads - Hu Shuli (胡舒立)

  

  From Caijing Magazine:

  General Secretary Hu Jintao presided as the newly elected members of the Politburo Standing Committee met the press October 22 at the end of the first plenary session of the 17th Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee. Soon after the meeting, the list of new Politburo members was publicized. With the central leadership’s reshuffle, the greatest suspense at the latest CPC Congress was over and a new page of history had been turned.

  No doubt every CPC congress is significant and meaningful. But in terms of attention from home and abroad, the 16th CPC Congress five years ago, this year’s 17th and the 18th to be held in five years are the most conspicuous because, after years of high-speed economic development, China is at a historic crossroads. This is an age in which China can exert increasing influence on the global economy and international community, its internal restructuring and social development face precious opportunities as well as complicated challenges, and the CPC leadership is being reshuffled. The unique 17th Congress bridged the past and future. [Full Text]

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  • November 1, 2007 10:06 AM

• Amber Light From the Party - Pierre F. Landry

  

  From YaleGlobal:

  If, as Adam Przeworski defines it, democracy is the “institutionalization of uncertainty,” the 17th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party was one of the most democratic in Chinese history. But this was not the sort of uncertainty that Professor Przeworksi had in mind - and it’s not necessarily good news for either the Chinese people or a world whose fate has become increasingly intertwined with China’s.

  The flow of rumors and counter-rumors in the run-up to the congress offers a sober reminder that, after nearly 30 years of Chinese reforms, politics in Beijing remain opaque and not open to change. These uncertainties are consequential because personnel changes correlate with the policy preferences of those who will end up on top. Choosing an heir to Hu Jintao in 2012 will affect the direction of China’s political and economic evolution through 2022, when Hu’s successor’s second term would normally end. [Full Text]

  Pierre F. Landry is associate professor of political science at Yale University.

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  • October 29, 2007 11:25 PM

• Slideshow: When a Delegate of the 17th Party Congress Returns Home

  

  Mr. Li Lianyu (李连玉) is the Party Secretary of Pizhou (邳州) , Xuzhou city, Jiangsu Province. He is also one of 2200 delegates who just attended the 17th Party Congress in Beijing. Photos above show the grand ceremony organized by the Pizhou government to “Welcome Secretary Li’s Glorious Return From the 17th Party Congress.” Pizhou’s population is 1,620,000. Photos are from a Chinese blogger calling himself “A Floor Sweeping Monk”

  Read also: China: Official excess met with humor, scorn, death threats by John Kennedy on The Global Voices Online.

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  • October 26, 2007 9:23 AM

• Wait A Minute, What Happened To Political Reform? - Qian Gang (Èí±Èí¢)

  

  From China Media Project:

  Before the 17th National Congress went into session I said we would have to see whether the phrase “political reform” (ÊîøÊ≤ª‰ΩìÂà∂ÊîπÈù©) appeared in a subhead in Hu Jintao’s political report. This, I said, would determine whether political reform would become a key agenda over the next five years. Based on appearances of the term in the 13th, 14th, 15th and 16th congress reports, I defined the presence of “political reform” in just one subhead as a minimum expectation of Hu’s political report.

  But Hu Jintao’s report frustrated even our most modest hopes.

  The 17th congress marks the first time in five major party meetings since the 13th National Congress in 1987 that we have not seen “political reform” in a subhead. In Zhao Ziyang’s report to the 13th congress, section five was called, “Concerning Political Reform” (ÂÖ≥‰∫éÊîøÊ≤ª‰ΩìÂà∂ÊîπÈù©). [Full Text]

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  • October 23, 2007 6:48 AM

• Who Rules China? - Gady A. Epstein

  

  From The Forbes:

  The big question everyone in the know was asking going into this week’s 17th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party was who would emerge as the anointed next leader of China. But there remains the other big question, one that too often goes unasked: How much does it matter?

  This is no Ralph Nader-esque red herring of cynicism along the lines of arguing in 2000 that there was no difference between Al Gore and George W. Bush in America’s “broken” two-party system. It is, rather, a fundamental question about the nature of the one party that continues to rule the world’s largest country, despite failing to address endemic corruption, widespread pollution and an ever-widening chasm between rich and poor.

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  • October 22, 2007 9:59 PM

• President Hu Shows Who’s Boss - M.D. Nalapat

  

  Professor M.D. Nalapat is vice-chair of the Manipal Advanced Research Group, UNESCO Peace Chair, and professor of geopolitics at Manipal University. From UPI Asia Online:

  Unlike Jiang, who shouted aloud but seldom brought out the stick, Hu Jintao has made China a formidable competitor for U.S.-EU influence across the globe, providing the same geopolitical option for, among several others, Hugo Chavez and Mahmoud Ahmedinejad that the fall of the USSR temporarily took away in 1991.

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  • October 22, 2007 1:10 PM

• In China, the More Things Change . . . - Joseph Kahn

  

  The New York Times analyzes the recently concluded 17th Party Congress:

  President Hu Jintao used the word democracy 61 times in his main address to the congress. The official Xinhua news agency reported that the party nominated 221 candidates to fill the 204 full seats on the Central Committee, meaning that 8.3 percent of those deemed eligible did not get a seat. Xinhua called this a “competitive election.”

  In reality, of course, China’s one-party system still owes more to Lenin than to Jefferson. It convenes congresses every five years to ratify leadership decisions on policy and personnel. The message is not change, but continuity.

  After months of secretive negotiations, the nine members of the new Politburo Standing Committee, the country’s top ruling body, were presented to the public for the first time on Monday morning. Their appointment was fait accompli, and the stiff, scripted ceremony to introduce them, which lasted barely 10 minutes, resembled a Communist coronation. [Full text]

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  • October 22, 2007 12:42 PM

• Four New Members Enter China’s Top Leadership - Xinhua

  

  

  From Xinhua:

  Xi Jinping, Li Keqiang, He Guoqiang and Zhou Yongkang entered the Political Bureau Standing Committee of the 17th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the Party’s top leadership, on Monday.

  The four new members were elected at the first plenary session of the 17th CPC Central Committee.

  Xi, 54, and Li, 52, serve as Party chiefs in Shanghai and Liaoning respectively. [Full Text]

  Read also Hu Jintao and four others reelected into Politburo Standing Committee, Hu Jintao reelected Chinese Communist Party Chief, Hu Jintao named chairman of CPC Central Military Commission, and He Guoqiang elected to oversee CPC anti-graft watchdog by Xinhua.
  
  BBC’s New China standing committee members

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  • October 21, 2007 8:53 PM

• China’s “Iron Lady” Wu Yi Headed For Retirement - Reuters

  

  From AP via wolx.com:

  Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi , known as China’s “Iron Lady” for her toughness in trade talks, was left out of a newly elected Communist Party Central Committee on Sunday, indicating that she will retire some time soon.

  Wu, 68, who has been responsible for contentious trade talks with the United States and for cleaning up a series of scandals over product safety, was left off the Committee along with Defence Minister Cao Gangchuan, 71, and Vice Premier Zeng Peiyan, 68, who has been in charge of industrial policy, Xinhua news agency reported. Their absence from the new Party Committee indicates that they will also give up their government posts in coming months. [Full Text]

  See also: Women a rare sight in China’s power corridors

  [Image: China's Vice Premier Wu Yi in Singapore in this July 11, 2007 file photo, by Nicky Loh from Reuters.]

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  • October 21, 2007 1:33 PM

• Hu Jintao, Wu Bangguo, Wen Jiabao, Jia Qinglin, Li Changchun In CPC New Central Committee, Zeng Qinghong, Wu Guanzheng, Luo Gan Not In - Xinhua

  

  From Xinhua:

  Hu Jintao, Wu Bangguo, Wen Jiabao, Jia Qinglin and Li Changchun have been elected Sunday morning into the 17th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the Party’s top decision-making body.

  Zeng Qinghong, Wu Guanzheng and Luo Gan are not in the new central committee.

  Zeng Qinghong is 68 years old, Wu Guanzheng, 69 and Luo Gan, 72.They were members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the 16th CPC Central Committee. [Full Text]

  Read also China’s Vice President Steps Down by Christopher Bodeen, Hatchet man to henchman, China’s Zeng bows out by Lindsay Beck, Wu Yi, Zhang Lichang, Cao Gangchuan, Zeng Peiyan not in CPC new central committee by Xinhua, and China’s “Iron Lady” Wu Yi headed for retirement by Reuters.

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  • October 20, 2007 8:57 PM

• China’s Communists Slowly Losing Credibility - Howard W. French

  

  Howard French reports in the International Herald Tribune that the Communist Party is losing its relevance as leaders are unwilling to make real changes that would reflect public concern:

  Chinese party congresses live up to the maxim that important things are decided in small meetings, and trivial things decided in large ones.

  Accordingly, who will follow Hu in five years is being hashed out in the smokiest of political back rooms, reducing the delegates who pore over the reports before the cameras, and who will eventually vote to ratify the new leadership lineup, to the role of movie set extras.

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  • October 19, 2007 8:28 PM