FOR the first time since the death of Mao Zedong in 1976, China’s most important reins of power have been handed over at the same time to a single man: Xi Jinping (pictured, centre, above). The decision, revealed on November 15th, that Hu Jintao has stepped down not only as the Communist Party’s general secretary, but also as head of China’s army, was part of the biggest shake-up of the party’s leadership in a decade. But, although Mr Xi now has the titles of power, his ability to use them will be heavily constrained. . . .
. Not since Hua Guofeng took over on Mao’s death have both jobs been transferred simultaneously.
Hua turned out to be little more than a transitional figure. Few people expect Mr Xi to be the same. But his new jobs by no means give him absolute power. Crucially, his two predecessors, Mr Hu and Mr Jiang, are still alive. Both will wield considerable influence: Mr Jiang, at the age of 86, probably even more than the 69-year-old Mr Hu. The membership of the Politburo Standing Committee, the party’s ruling body, bears Mr Jiang’s imprint. Mr Xi and the man expected to succeed Wen Jiabao as prime minister next March, Li Keqiang, are the only two left from the outgoing committee, which has been reduced from nine members to seven. Of the five newcomers, all but one are considered to be protégés of Mr Jiang. . . .
The body’s new membership does not suggest any clear policy shift. Reformers will be disappointed at the omission of two men once thought frontrunners for elevation: the party chief of Guangdong province, Wang Yang, and the head of the party’s Organisation Department, Li Yuanchao. Both are seen as Mr Hu’s men and are reputed to be relatively liberal.
None of this necessarily means that Mr Xi will shy away from economic, or even political, reforms. Mr Hu has been widely criticised by liberals in China for letting reforms stagnate, especially in his second term. Some allow themselves a smidgen of hope that Mr Xi may prove bolder. As a “princeling”, the child of a senior leader, Mr Xi is assumed to be rather more self-confident than Mr Hu. His father was close to Mao (until he fell out with him), as well as to Deng. This gives Mr Xi clout that Mr Hu, a commoner, lacked in his dealings with China’s ruling families.
Mr Xi offered little evidence of such confidence, however, in his remarks to journalists after the rubber-stamping of his appointment by the party’s newly chosen 376-member central committee. He seemed relaxed and upbeat in his delivery (in the purest Mandarin tones of any of China’s supreme leaders since the party came to power in 1949). But his comments were bland. After a year of huge scandal, involving the purge of a Politburo member, Bo Xilai, for alleged corruption and complicity in the cover-up of a murder, Mr Xi referred only briefly to the “serious challenges” the party now faces, including that of corruption and becoming “divorced from the people”. He took no questions.
) response, do you see opportunities and not only challenges?
