Today sees the start of the annual plenary session of the Communists Party’s 17th Central Committee. This year’s meeting is of particular interest, as it may (or may not) be during this week that we find out for sure who the next leader of the CCP will be. If, as many expect, Xi Jinping is chosen as the vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, it will be a strong signal that he is slated to take over for current Party leader Hu Jintao in 2012. There’s no clear rules for how the leader of China’s government is chosen, but based on the transfer of power from Jiang Zemin to Hu, one first becomes vice-chair of the Central Military Commission, and then gets to sit in the big chair.
This year’s meeting will also be about corruption (something which as plagued China since it was first unified in 221 BC), and methods for promoting intra-Party democracy.
Liu Junning of the Cathay Institute for Public Affairs is quoted in an article appearing in the New York Times today about the plenary session:
“One liberal political analyst who has called for a more open Chinese society, Liu Junning, argued in a telephone interview that prospects for genuine changes this week were dim.“I think it is important in China first to strengthen formal institutions such as the legislature and the court system, rather than informal structures such as the ruling party,” he said. “Let’s see if there are any open factions within the party — any open opposition, any open minorities.”
Like many of the power holders in China, it’s unsure where Xi Jinping stands on the issues. According to one profile appearing in Newsweek, “the only things analysts can agree on is that [Xi Jinping is] market-friendly, prudent, and married to a famous singer. Where Xi’s heart really lies is unknown.”
But just how market-friendly and how prudent remains to be seen. One can only hope…
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