With a Transition Near, New Questions in China
03/10/2012 6 comentarios
With only 6 weeks to go before formal unveiling of a new set of leaders for China, the Communist Party elders and senior officials are still deciding who will ascend to the top ruling bodies and what policy direction they will adopt for new team, political insiders and analysts say. After nearly a year in which planning for succession has been upset by an extraordinary string of scandals, the leaders and elders have finally agreed on Nov. 8 as the date to begin the 18th Party Congress, the climax of just second peaceful transfer of power in China’s Communist era. Much of the back-and-forth over succession, which officials have kept behind a curtain of secrecy, has involved horse-trading over leadership positions between a faction led by President Hu and one loyal to his predecessor, Jiang Zemin. In recent negotiations, Mr. Jiang and his allies, who include Xi Jinping, the designated heir to Mr. Hu, appear to have had the upper hand, several political insiders said. Mr. Jiang’s attendance at a concert on Sept. 22 was interpreted by some as a signal that he was still a force in the game of imperial politics. One blow to Mr. Hu this summer was the quiet unfolding of a scandal involving a powerful politician, Ling Jihua, who is Mr. Hu’s fixer. Now another stress point is becoming evident: Mr. Hu appears on the defensive over his legacy because of growing criticism that policies enacted during his decade-long tenure were responsible for the excessive growth of security forces and also stalled an overhaul of the Chinese economy that is needed to maintain its dynamism. “Right now, I think Hu feels very worried because a lot of people both inside and outside the party have been criticizing him,” said a party intellectual with ties to the leadership. “Some say he’s the worst leader China has had since 1949. Conflicts in society have intensified; monopolistic and antimarket tendencies in the economy seem to have intensified; and there’s been no real progress on reform.” Plans for political agenda and some slots in the new leadership have been tightly contested and closely held. Several people with ties to top leaders usually aware of details for party congress said they did not even know the event’s starting date until shortly before it was announced. In recent weeks, a territorial dispute with Japan and sobering economic statistics that point to a worrisome slowdown have added stress. But much greater factor behind uncertainty and delay, insiders say, has been the fallout from scandals. The ripples are still being felt. On Friday, along with announcing the date of the party congress, Chinese leaders said Bo Xilai, who was felled this year by a seismic scandal, would be expelled from the party and prosecuted on a wide range of accusations, including taking bribes and abusing his power (…..)