The People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) ruling Communist Party opened a key annual meeting yesterday at which President Hu Jintao’s (胡錦濤) heir apparent was expected to move one step closer to assuming the leadership of the nation.
The 204-member central committee, one of the party’s top bodies, convened for a four-day session also expected to look at corruption and stability at a time of rising social and ethnic unrest.
Vice President Xi Jinping (習近平) was expected to be appointed to the party’s powerful military commission during the meeting, which would make him the front-runner to succeed Hu as party leader in 2012 and president in 2013.
Political analysts can only speculate on the inner workings of China’s top leadership, which are cloaked in a veil of secrecy.
But they say that Hu was elected vice chairman of the military commission in September 1999, paving the way for his rise to the nation’s presidency less than four years later, and Xi is expected to follow the same path.
Xi’s positions as vice president and head of the party’s secretariat place him at exactly the same level Hu had reached before he was nominated to the commission.
“Judging by his current performance, one can suppose that he has got the leadership and society’s approval,” said Hu Xingdou (胡星斗), economics professor at the Beijing Institute of Technology. “I estimate there will be no big problem for him to enter the military commission.”
Analysts said Xi had passed one major test with flying colors — he was responsible for the smooth running of last year’s Beijing Olympic Games, which were seen as a great success.
The party meeting began just two weeks before the sensitive 60th anniversary of the founding of communist China on Oct. 1, due to be marked by a huge military parade, song and dance performances and fireworks.
With these celebrations on the horizon, ethnic unrest simmering in northwest Xinjiang region and sporadic mass protests elsewhere, the leadership needs to show unity, and appointing Xi to the military commission will do just that, analysts say.
“They want to give an impression of stability and continuity, at a time when people are preparing to celebrate the 60th anniversary,” said Jean-Pierre Cabestan, a political science professor at Hong Kong Baptist University.
The son of a revolutionary hero, the 56-year-old Xi, who is married to a famous singer, has served in the past as the top party official in the eastern provinces of Fujian and Zhejiang, and more recently as Shanghai’s top leader.
Known as a “Chinese princeling” due to his family lineage, at least part of Xi’s political ascension is due to his late father, Xi Zhongxun (習仲勛), a communist guerrilla who fought alongside revolutionary leader Mao Zedong (毛澤東).
Xi is not thought to be Hu’s favorite, but some observers believe that former president Jiang Zemin (江澤民) — who still wields a lot of power even in retirement — and his allies managed to propel Xi to prominence.
Aside from issues of succession, the meeting is also expected to focus on corruption and stability.
The Beijing Institute of Technology’s Hu said rules stipulating that officials must declare and publicize their property could be introduced.
The security situation in Xinjiang, where nearly 200 people were killed in ethnic unrest in July, and another five died in protests earlier this month over a spate of mysterious needle attacks, could also be on the table, he said.
Eleven people, including a former minister, were arrested in Serbia on Friday over a train station disaster in which 16 people died. The concrete canopy of the newly renovated station in the northern city of Novi Sad collapsed on Nov. 1, 2024 in a disaster widely blamed on corruption and poor oversight. It sparked a wave of student-led protests and led to the resignation of then-Serbian prime minister Milos Vucevic and the fall of his government. The public prosecutor’s office in Novi Sad opened an investigation into the accident and deaths. In February, the public prosecutor’s office for organized crime opened another probe into
RISING RACISM: A Japanese group called on China to assure safety in the country, while the Chinese embassy in Tokyo urged action against a ‘surge in xenophobia’ A Japanese woman living in China was attacked and injured by a man in a subway station in Suzhou, China, Japanese media said, hours after two Chinese men were seriously injured in violence in Tokyo. The attacks on Thursday raised concern about xenophobic sentiment in China and Japan that have been blamed for assaults in both countries. It was the third attack involving Japanese living in China since last year. In the two previous cases in China, Chinese authorities have insisted they were isolated incidents. Japanese broadcaster NHK did not identify the woman injured in Suzhou by name, but, citing the Japanese
YELLOW SHIRTS: Many protesters were associated with pro-royalist groups that had previously supported the ouster of Paetongtarn’s father, Thaksin, in 2006 Protesters rallied on Saturday in the Thai capital to demand the resignation of court-suspended Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra and in support of the armed forces following a violent border dispute with Cambodia that killed more than three dozen people and displaced more than 260,000. Gathered at Bangkok’s Victory Monument despite soaring temperatures, many sang patriotic songs and listened to speeches denouncing Paetongtarn and her father, former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, and voiced their backing of the country’s army, which has always retained substantial power in the Southeast Asian country. Police said there were about 2,000 protesters by mid-afternoon, although
MOGAMI-CLASS FRIGATES: The deal is a ‘big step toward elevating national security cooperation with Australia, which is our special strategic partner,’ a Japanese official said Australia is to upgrade its navy with 11 Mogami-class frigates built by Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles said yesterday. Billed as Japan’s biggest defense export deal since World War II, Australia is to pay US$6 billion over the next 10 years to acquire the fleet of stealth frigates. Australia is in the midst of a major military restructure, bolstering its navy with long-range firepower in an effort to deter China. It is striving to expand its fleet of major warships from 11 to 26 over the next decade. “This is clearly the biggest defense-industry agreement that has ever
RSS