From China Brief ( Volume 7, Issue 17):
The liberal faction of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is doing eleventh-hour lobbying to have genuine political reform included in the agenda of the upcoming 17th Party Congress. Yet all signs point to the fact that General Secretary and President Hu Jintao will only promote the kind of “intra-party democracy” that will not spoil harmony in the party and country. A key reason behind Hu’s caution is that while his heir-apparent Li Keqiang is likely to be appointed to the Politburo Standing Committee (PBSC), the “Hu Faction’s” bid to dominate the Politburo and the PBSC is coming up against significant challenges from within the CCP. [Full Text]
Willy Lam is a Senior Fellow at The Jamestown Foundation.
