China's Communists deliver promises but no plans

The new leaders of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) closed a secretive annual planning session on Tuesday with a broad pledge to deepen market reforms and help the poor, but they did not detail any new economic or political policies.

A communique issued at the close of the four-day meeting skirted most sensitive political topics and did not reveal details about a plan to amend the Constitution that had been widely discussed in state-controlled media.

The cautious approach appears to reflect the baby steps that CCP chief and President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) has taken to try to assert his own agenda as he labors in the shadow of his predecessor, Jiang Zemin (江澤民).

Hu has raised expectations that he intends to address China's growing wealth gap, fight rural and urban unemployment and improve health care and social security.

But party officials so far have not explained how they will fulfill such promises at a time when China is spending ever greater sums to build roads and bridges, beef up the military, explore space and subsidize state-owned companies.

Last month, Hu previewed the annual planning session, known as a plenum, with a relatively strident call to make the one-party state more responsive to public opinion. But officials did not announce even the sketchiest outline of political reform on Tuesday, suggesting that any changes of this sort may take many years to implement.

The failure to chart a bolder course is somewhat surprising. Communist leaders have traditionally treated the first major political gathering after the appointment of new leaders as an opportunity to announce policy shifts.

The late paramount leader Deng Xiaoping (鄧小平) used a similar session just after he took full control 25 years ago to outline the experiments that led to the flowering of China's market economy.

Today, the economy is racing ahead at such a torrid pace that officials are continually revising growth estimates upward. Some economists now expect that China will grow at a double-digit pace this year, much faster than any other major economy.

But while Hu's stature has increased since he became the top leader nearly a year ago, he is not thought to exercise unfettered command of the party elite.

Many analysts argue that he will tackle the most sensitive economic and political issues only after a prolonged process of consensus building. They say he wants to make sure his flank is not vulnerable to attack from Jiang, who remains chief of the Military Commission, or members of the Politburo Standing Committee who are not considered Hu's reliable allies.

"These are problems that are too important to avoid but also too sensitive to face up to, so they're dealt with by vagueries," said Zhong Dajun, who runs his own economic consultancy in Beijing.

"I guess the rationale here is that they need to wait for conditions to mature. For the time being, these issues are too loaded with conflicts," he said.

Kenneth Lieberthal, a China expert and former US national security council official who is now at the University of Michigan, said that Hu and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) have proven adept at public relations but have yet to demonstrate concrete results.

"They've told us about all the things they would love to do if they have the money," Lieberthal said

"But it will take a year or so to see if there are any real budgetary results," he said.