China's leaders attend crucial conference

The leadership of China's Communist Party convenes this weekend for its first annual conference since elevating a new generation of leaders, hoping to focus a message it considers crucial to its survival: raising living standards across the vast country.

Also on tap at the meeting of the Central Committee may be endorsement of an amendment to the Chinese constitution designed to enshrine the notion of an entrepreneurial Communist Party -- advocated by retired president Jiang Zemin (江澤民), who considers it his legacy -- into the country's legal canon.

The plenum of the 16th Communist Party Congress, to be held from today through Tuesday, unfolds as China prepares to take a big step skyward in its global stature, launching its first manned space mission to orbit the Earth, probably on Wednesday.

The events, so close together, appear timed in tandem to directly link the party with such a patriotic and modern accomplishment in the minds of the citizenry.

Though the plenum brings together China's top leaders in the Great Hall of the People on Tiananmen Square, such meetings are typically closed to public scrutiny and held amid tight security.

No significant political decisions are expected, though new party General Secretary Hu Jintao (胡錦濤), also the country's president, is expected to work to put his stamp on the party agenda as he presides over his first annual meeting of its leadership.

Jiang's theory of the "Three Represents," the vehicle to inject entrepreneurialism into Communist Party doctrine and thus make more people richer and more accepting of one-party rule, is continuously touted on state television and in the smallest villages as "important theory."

State media have been suggesting since August that "Three Represents" was bound for the constitution. Yesterday, the day before the plenum, the party newspaper People's Daily amplified that notion, insisting that study of the theory "must be deepened" to build a "transparent and clean party."

And late last month, China's media leaders attended a training workshop at the Communist Party School to study "Three Represents" thoughts.

"The CPC must always represent the most advanced productivity and culture in China as well as the fundamental interests of the maximal majority of the Chinese people," People's Daily said. Such language is party code for the difficult balance between socialism and market forces.

Aside from the constitutional amendment, which is effectively a procedural matter, party leaders must assess how their development and modernization drive -- and a related but equally important issue, building a "well-off" society -- is proceeding.

While development in China since 2000 has focused on the western regions, the volatile northeast -- home to millions of factory workers and manual laborers laid off because of the economic reforms of recent years -- is expected to be a priority.

Without the support of such workers, who ostensibly form the backbone of China's socialist system, the party could find themselves the subject of deep public anger that could threaten its absolute rule.

While Jiang's theory continues to have legs, the profile of the man himself has been significantly lowered. In state television coverage of a visit by former US president George Bush on Thursday, significant time was devoted to Bush's meetings with Hu and Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶); coverage of Jiang's meeting was given about five seconds.