NYT: China's Communist Party Meets to Hone Survival Skills

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China's Communist Party Meets to Hone Survival Skills
By REUTERS
Published: September 14, 2009
    Filed at 11:34 p.m. ET

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's Communist Party elite gathers on Tuesdayto explore ways to ensure its one-party rule survives the strains ofrapid economic growth and an increasingly fluid and divided society.
The gathering may also reveal personnel moves that suggest how Chinese President Hu Jintaowill pass power to a successor generation as he approaches retirementfrom 2012, as well as provide clues to any changes in economic policy.
While Hu will promote the nation's outward ambitions at the G20summit in Pittsburgh next week, the communist party Central Committeemeeting will act as a reminder his government remains worried aboutsurmounting domestic challenges.
The Central Committee fullsession, or plenum, will meet in closed session until Friday, andofficial media reports have said the some 200 full members will discuss"inner-party democracy", a term for making decision-making more openand rule-based.
Behind that stolid theme lies the leadership'sfears that its control could eventually slip as Chinese society becomesincreasingly wealthy, fragmented and assertive.
"Recently, massincidents in some areas have exposed the indifference and weakgoverning abilities of a few leading officials," said a commentary onthe Plenum in Outlook Weekly, a magazine issued by the official Xinhuanews agency.
"If a ruling party's members cannot correctly handlethe power in their hands, become high-handed and divorced from themasses, this ruling party will ultimately be rejected by the people,"said the commentary.
The Central Committee meets in these full sessions usually once a year to endorse policy directions laid down by leaders.
Suchmeetings do not announce specific measures on the economy -- a taskusually left to government meetings -- but the documents likely toemerge may give some signs about the direction of policy.
Drawingan analogy with Hu's own path to power, some observers have said VicePresident Xi Jinping may reinforce his claim to Hu's spot by alsotaking a position on the Central Military Commission that oversees thePeople's Liberation Army.
Analysts said dramatic policy changesare most unlikely, and talk of "inner-party democracy" may bring waryadjustments to party control, but nothing to challenge that control.
"Inner-partydemocracy cannot develop unless there is some sort of societaldemocracy," said Joseph Fewsmith, an professor of Chinese politics at Boston University.
"Theyhave yet to make a choice whether they are going to loosen in some wayvertical hierarchical controls, even within the Party," Fewsmith saidof China's leaders.
STRENGTH AND ANXIETY
The CommunistParty is preparing for the 60th anniversary of the founding of thePeople's Republic of China, and plans to use the Oct 1 celebrations todisplay its confidence, strength and programme to create an "harmonioussociety."
But strains between the Party and the public recentlywelled up in the far-west region of Xinjiang recently, when Han Chineseresidents of Urumqi, the regional capital, massed in front ofgovernment offices to demand the sacking of Xinjiang's veteran Partychief.
The Han Chinese residents said the government had not acted quickly enough to punish Muslim Uighurswho took part in deadly ethnic riots on July 5, and they were alsoalarmed by spreading claims that Uighurs were attacking residents withsyringes.
Even in Chinese towns and villages free of ethnicdivisions, officials have faced violent protests that reflecteddeepening public estrangement from officials accused of corruption,self-enrichment and abusing their powers.
"The Party leadershipsees stability as something that can easily slip from its grasp," saidChen Ziming, a dissident who writes regularly on Chinese politics.
"Thatencourages this sense of constant vigilance," said Chen. "But thatanxiety also prevents the Party from taking any bold steps."
Thekey to stifling these budding threats to one-Party rule lies instrengthening checks on corruption and giving the Party's 75.9 millionmembers a clearer say in decisions and scrutinising appointments, statemedia reports about the Plenum have said.
Yet even the Party's own experts voiced only modest hopes.
"Thesystem that was formed over a long time means that whenever we run intoproblems, we tend to deal with them through centralised measures," WangChangjiang, a reform-minded professor at the Central Party School toldOutlook Weekly. The Central Party Schools trains rising officials.
(Reporting by Chris Buckley; Editing by David Fox)

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2009/09/14/world/international-uk-china-politics.html

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