The Chinese Communists
opt for a New Soft Image
Antoaneta
Bezlova
BEIJING:
China's Communist Party -- the world's largest political movement
with 66 million members - has bid to cast off its harsh image
as a revolutionary party committed to violent class struggle in
favour of the more mellow image of a conventional ruling party.
At its week-long congress that ended Friday, the party redefined
itself from the ''revolutionary vanguard of the proletariat''
to a representative party of the whole nation, embracing capitalists
- the class enemies it loathed in the past -- and electing a younger
generation of leaders.
The
59-year-old Hu Jintao, an enigmatic party apparatchik who, under
the outgoing party chief Jiang Zemin was deputy general secretary
and vice president, heads the new party leadership.
The Politburo Standing Committee, China's highest ruling body,
was expanded from seven to nine members, all men in their fifties
and early sixties who are deeply committed to turning China into
an aggressive, high-technology market economy.
Handpicked by their elders for their manifested zeal in keeping
the Communist Party in power, the new leaders pledged to adhere
to Marxism, Leninism, Mao Zedong thought and Deng Xiaoping theory
for ''a long time to come''.
But, added new party chief Hu Jintao, the new leadership will
also work hard to ''project a fine image of a party that advances
with its times''. Although he is not ranked alongside the late
paramount leaders Mao and Deng, whose ideas have already been
enshrined in the party constitution, outgoing Communist Party
chief Jiang is credited with fostering that ''fine
image'' by introducing his 'Theory of the Three Represents'.
Jiang's
theory means that the party now formally welcomes not only workers,
farmers, soldiers and intellectuals but also ''any advanced element
of other social strata'', clearly referring to the emerging forces
of private businessmen, professionals and other social elite.
The change in ideology was sealed on the last day of the congress,
when more than 2,000 delegates voted in favour of changing the
party constitution to accommodate Jiang's theory -- a clear sign
that the Chinese Communist Party finally sees itself as a party
in power as opposed to a revolutionary party.
''A ruling party has different goals than a revolutionary party,''
expounds Wang Changjiang, a professor of party building at the
Central Chinese Communist Party School. ''A revolutionary party
fights to seize power by violent means while a ruling party has
to find the best way of
using this power.''
There are other differences too, argues Hu Wei, a political scientist
at the Shanghai Jiaotong University. ''Class
enemies play an important role in the ideology of the revolutionary
party, but almost none in the ideology of the ruling party. Quite
opposite, a ruling party strives to emphasise harmony and cooperation
between different classes of the country,'' Hu explains.
While some Chinese pundits are grappling to present the current
transfer of power as a watershed for the Communist Party in the
new century, other watchers are hunting for clues on whether the
change in the leadership faces is anything more than just a generational
change for the same old party.
''As long as there is no political reform, there is no real political
change,'' says one Western diplomat here. It
is uncertain whether the retiring generation of leaders will form
a National Security Council -- a secretive ruling council that
could influence party decisions behind the scenes and may try
to block any chance for genuine political reform.
Hu Jintao is not Jiang's candidate for successor, but had been
selected by late paramount leader Deng Xiaoping to eventually
take over. Jiang has actually been promoting his own protege,
Zeng Qinghong, who emerged as number five in the new leadership
line-up.
Hu's rule would be much circumvented should Jiang's protege gain
a seat in the Politburo Standing Committee, according to an earlier
report by the influential International Institute for Strategic
Studies in London. ''China is therefore entering a period of heightened
political
instability,'' the think tank said in its annual strategic survey.
To
complicate the power-jockeying even further, Jiang has opted to
retain his key position as chairman of the powerful Central Military
Commission, a post that Deng Xiaoping held onto after he had given
up his other formal titles.
Jiang remains as China's head of the state until March, when the
National People's Congress or parliament meets to vote on government
posts. Retiring with Jiang are five other elder leaders, including
the hardliner Li Peng, much hated for his decision to dispatch
tanks against the unarmed students in 1989 Tiananmen pro-democracy
protests, and the no-nonsense premier Zhu Rongji, respected for
his ambitious drive that finally brought China into the World
Trade Organisation last year.
In with the new leaders are mainly technocrats, bureaucrats and
a few local party officials who have excelled in their respective
provinces. Among
them are Vice Premier Wu Bangguo, who emerged as number two and
is expected to take over the chairmanship of the National People's
Congress from Li Peng, and Vice Premier Wen Jiabao, third in line
who would probably take over the premiership from Zhu Rongji in
March next year.
Little is known about the new party chief Hu, who has been at
the peak of China's political power for 10 years but revealed
little of his true political colours.
An engineering graduate from the prestigious Qinghua University,
he stayed on as a political instructor during the violent political
clashes that took place there during the Cultura Revolution (1966-76)
but fought against the radicals.
He has served in poor Gansu province and troubled Tibet before
being promoted to the party Politburo in 1992. He was party secretary
in Tibet in 1989 when soldiers opened fire on Tibetans protesting
against Chinese rule.
Hu became vice president in 1998 and was named Jiang's deputy
chairman the next year on the Central Military Commission that
controls the army. Hu's rise is credited to his ability to keep
a low profile and avoid political infighting behind the scenes.
However, his ascendance to power
means he will have to abandon his humble ways and grapple with
some tough political choices in the next five years.
