[Nasional-e] 'Keep pace with times,' Jiang urges party fo

[Ambon]

 'Keep pace with times,' Jiang urges party forum
  Erik Eckholm The New York Times Saturday, November 9, 2002

BEIJING The Chinese Communist Party began its most hallowed ritual Friday, a
huge, weeklong meeting in the Great Hall of the People that will anoint the
country's next generation of leaders and set its political and economic
direction for years to come. The congress, the 16th since a band of
revolutionaries formed the Communist Party of China in 1921, is Jiang
Zemin's final hurrah as party chief, capping a reign of 13 years. But Jiang,
76, does not appear to be fading away. He has orchestrated the meeting to
venerate his record of accomplishment, engrave his theories in the party
charter and leave several allies in top positions, and he may well keep his
hat as chief of the military.
.
In the hall Friday morning, with a giant hammer and sickle as backdrop,
Jiang presented a lengthy report on the state of nation in which he
emphasized the need to "keep pace with the times" by embracing his new
theory for broadening the social base of the party.
.
He offered only the barest proposals for political change, instead labeling
stability as "a principle of overriding importance" and calling for more
shared decision-making within the "people's democratic dictatorship."
.
Listening to Jiang were more than 2,100 delegates, 82 percent of them male,
from party offices and branches all over the country.
.
Presiding over the congress, an event that takes place every five years, is
Hu Jintao, 59, a gifted but cautious insider who will be named the new
general secretary of the party next week.
.
Hu is expected, at least in the near term, to stick to Jiang's broad path,
further opening China's economy to market forces and remaking the Communist
Party while crushing alternative political movements and social unrest.
.
Hu is also expected to take over the national presidency from Jiang in
March. But it may be years, experts here now say, before he can consolidate
his authority and show his own stripes, especially if Jiang remains the
military chairman.
.
"It's clear that Jiang Zemin has successfully installed many of his people
in key positions and he will probably be able to exert influence for some
time to come," said a senior editor of a major party newspaper. "This
presents a serious challenge to Hu Jintao, and if things are badly handled
it may sow the seeds of division and upheaval in the party."
.
Some other party officials, though, say they welcome a period of overlap as
the new leaders find their bearings.
.
Most attention has been given to changes in what is now a seven-member
Standing Committee of the Politburo, the supreme group that runs the country
on a week-to-week basis. As important for the future is the large-scale
turnover expected in the party's Central Committee, which has more than 300
voting and nonvoting members, and the 21-member Politburo, which sets
national policies.
.
With an informal rule that Central Committee members should retire at age
65, or at age 70 if they are also on the Politburo, half or more of the
membership of these powerful bodies may change. That Jiang is stepping down
in official triumph was made clear Wednesday in a statement by the current
Central Committee and in a report to the congress unveiled Friday. In what
read like valedictory salutes, the documents summed up the achievements of
the party since 1989 - not coincidentally, the year that Jiang was
unexpectedly picked to lead the party after the divisive and bloody
crackdown on student-led demonstrators around Tiananmen Square.
.
"These 13 years have recorded massive achievements, and they will be
recorded in the glorious history of the great revival of the Chinese
nation," the committee statement read.
.
The statement did not mention the more intractable problems that Jiang's
successors will face, like official corruption, rising inequality and
explosive unemployment.
.
Amendments to the party constitution have also been forwarded to the
congress. Though their content is not yet public, they clearly will enshrine
Jiang's theory of the "three represents," which says that the party can
embrace the interests of entrepreneurs and other elites as it defends the
working class.
.
Jiang may not be inscribed by name, but his theory will take its place
alongside the worshipped, if vague, "Deng Xiaoping theory," which justified
the move to a market economy, and "Mao Zedong thought."
.
The congress is expected to last about a week, with delegates voting in the
new Central Committee and adopting the policy report, revisions in the party
charter and a report on the battle against corruption. The most awaited
revelations will come the day after, when the seven to nine men chosen for
the new Standing Committee walk before television cameras inside the Great
Hall of the People.
.
Expected to resign their party slots along with Jiang are several other top
leaders who have passed age 70, including Li Peng, the conservative head of
Parliament; Zhu Rongji, the prime minister, and others on the Standing
Committee. It is widely rumored that Jiang has engineered the resignation of
a rival, Li Ruihuan, who is just 68.
.
While the final lineup remains secret, diplomats and other experts here say,
based on known recent appointments, that Jiang has succeeded in packing the
Standing Committee and other key party positions with protégés. Those
appointments may guard against radical changes in policy or any effort to
turn against Jiang and his legacy by, for example, questioning his rough,
unpopular crackdown on the Falun Gong spiritual movement or inquiring into
the business ties of his relatives.
.
Doubts on Taiwan links
.
China said Friday that it did not expect direct trade, transport and postal
links with rival Taiwan to be established next year and that the ball was in
Taipei's court, Reuters reported from Beijing. "I'm not optimistic that the
three links will come next year because this does not depend on us, but on
the other party," Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan said. "The three links is
not a political issue, but a practical or technical one. Therefore it does
not need to be resolved through political negotiations."
.
President Chen Shui-bian of Taiwan has said that negotiations to end a ban
on direct links should involve government officials.