A reformist member of China’s decisionmaking politburo, Li Yuanchao (李源潮), is set to become vice president this week instead of a more senior and conservative official best known for keeping the media in check, sources said.
Li’s appointment would be a sign that new Communist Party general secretary and Chinese president-elect Xi Jinping (李源潮)’s clout is growing, a source with ties to the leadership said.
Xi fended off a bid by influential former Chinese president Jiang Zemin (江澤民) to install propaganda tsar Liu Yunshan (劉雲山) in the job, the source said.
Jiang was a major power behind the scenes in the administration of outgoing Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤).
The post of vice president is largely symbolic, but the job would raise Li’s profile, give him a role in foreign affairs and further bolster Xi, who took the top jobs in the party and military at a party congress in November last year.
The promotion of Li may also signal a willingness on the part of Xi to pursue limited reforms that Li is known to have advocated in his previous posts, such as making the selection of party officials more inclusive.
Two other sources, who declined to be identified because it is sensitive to discuss elite politics with foreign media, also confirmed that Xi had decided to make Li his vice president rather than Liu.
The National People’s Congress, China’s rubber-stamp parliament, is set to vote in Xi and Li as president and vice president respectively tomorrow. Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang (李克強) is to succeed Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶), overseeing the economy and day-to-day running of the Cabinet.
“Li Yuanchao will be vice president, not Liu Yunshan,” the source with leadership ties said. “It was Xi’s decision, and a sign he is strong and able to say ‘no’ to Jiang.”
In November last year, Liu was promoted to the seven-man politburo standing committee with responsibility for propaganda and ideology. He has also taken over two of Xi’s previous positions: president of the Central Party School, which grooms up-and-coming cadres, and the top seat on the secretariat of the party’s elite 205-member Central Committee.
Liu served as propaganda minister between 2002 and last year, keeping a tight leash on domestic media and China’s Internet, which has more than 500 million users.
His rival, Li Yuanchao, had been widely considered a top contender for a spot on the standing committee in November, but party elders led by Jiang used a last-minute straw poll to block him from joining the body, sources said.
“This time it’s kind of a holding position,” said Kerry Brown, executive director of the China Studies Centre at the University of Sydney.
Li Yuanchao has been regarded as progressive for advocating incremental reforms in how the party promotes officials and consults the populace on policies, but how much influence he has as vice president will be, to a large degree, decided by Xi.
“If Xi wants a proactive, tightly-allied kind of vice president, then the vice president will have power. If he wants a purely symbolic figure, who is there to do absolutely nothing, then that’s what the vice president will do,” Brown said.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
STATE OF THE NATION: The legislature should invite the president to deliver an address every year, the TPP said, adding that Lai should also have to answer legislators’ questions The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday proposed inviting president-elect William Lai (賴清德) to make a historic first state of the nation address at the legislature following his inauguration on May 20. Lai is expected to face many domestic and international challenges, and should clarify his intended policies with the public’s representatives, KMT caucus secretary-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said when making the proposal at a meeting of the legislature’s Procedure Committee. The committee voted to add the item to the agenda for Friday, along with another similar proposal put forward by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The invitation is in line with Article 15-2