The Communist Party's new leaders: helmsmen, victims and executioners
Rome (AsiaNews) - Appearing moved and modest, a smiling Xi Jinping, the new general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC), introduced himself and the other six members of the Standing Committee of the Politburo. Like their leader, Li Keqiang, Zhang Dejiang, Yu Zhengsheng, Liu Yunshan, Wang Qishan and Zhang Gaoli, looked like school boys at the end of their end-of-year play.
In fact, what occurred today in the Great Hall of the People, on the edge of Tiananmen Square, marks an important leadership shift in the world's most populous nation. Thanks to them, in ten years the world's second largest economy will likely overtake the United States, or implode in civil war.
Xi Jinping's emotions probably stem from the great task "passed to us by history," as he put it, and by the fact, which he emphatically stressed, that they will "lead the whole Party and the people".
In such occasions, rhetoric is de rigueur. "Our party is dedicated to serving the people," he said after introducing his six-member team. "It has led the people in making world-renowned achievements, and we have every reason to take pride in these achievements," he added.
A few days earlier, the new secretary had praised Hu Jintao's speech who more realistically had acknowledged that the party had moved away from the masses, and had warned that corruption among party officials and their families could "cause the collapse of the party."
Xi too noted that they cannot rest on their laurels, and must deal instead with "corruption, being divorced from the people, going through formalities and bureaucratism caused by some party officials."
By blaming some officials, the party is safe and can continue to rule unperturbed by the millions of men and women who each year travel to Beijing to speak out against corrupt local officials, presenting their petitions only to find themselves in "black jails" for months. No government figure says that in 2010, there were more than 640,000 corruption cases filed, but only 24,000 trials and far fewer convictions.
Sadly, the CPC continues to see itself as the victim of injustice in society, whilst boasting that it can heel all of the latter's wounds. Like some divinity that can rise up after each fall, it is reborn every time a new leadership takes over, claiming it will act anew again.
Compassion, not anger, is what Xi Jinping's long-winded speech elicits, despite its lies and half-truths, since he is one first victims of a system that demoted his father and forced him out of the classroom and into the fields to till the land.
The same is true for many of the other members of the standing committee, first and foremost, Yu Zhengsheng, the party boss in Shanghai, who said that six members of his family perished during the great chaos caused by the Cultural Revolution, with his younger sister committing suicide when she was at high school, and his mother, one of the party's revolutionary vanguards, becoming schizophrenic during seven years in jail.
Xi Jinping, Yu Zhengsheng and the others are also victims of the present because they have to play the role of leaders, when in fact they are "guided" by party elders in the interests of state-owned corporations.
It is no secret that Jiang Zemin, whose term of office as president and general secretary ended in 2002, is behind the new boys in town, defending the established rights of many princelings and state-owned companies, the latter kept afloat by advantageous loans from state banks and monopolies in areas like communications and energy. This oligarchy and its privileges are dragging down China's economy with inefficiencies, corruption, excess capacity, real estate bubbles, bank debt and inflation.
During the recent congress, Hu Deping, son of the great reformer, Hu Yaobang, called on the party to pay more attention to human rights, liberalise the economy to give more leeway to the private sector, and ensure the independence of judiciary.
Every month, one think tank or another warns against ignoring popular demands, calling for political reform and action on the growing gap between the rich and the poor. However, if such voices were heeded, the interests of the ruling oligarchy would be affected, undermining the party's monopoly of power.
Even though Hu Jintao called for greater internal democracy, the fear of losing power explains why fifth generation leaders have been co-opted by various factions with the blessing of Jiang Zemin. Indeed, behind the scene, their name had been circulating, in some case for years, as possible successors.
What is different this time is that Xi will become director of the Central Military Commission (CMC) almost from the start.
Hu Jintao's predecessor Jiang Zemin, and Deng Xiaoping before him remained CMC chief for two years after leaving their other posts.
This time it is unclear whether Hu was pushed out, sign of his faction's growing weakness, or took his leave to set an example to the entire party.
What is certain that Xi and his men will now wield all the power, executive and military, perhaps because out of fear of more social unrest.
Guangdong's party chief Wang Yang is one of those kept out of the Standing Committee. In this southern city, he earned a good reputation for settling sometimes violent disputes between police and farmers and workers and management, through dialogue and democracy.
Had he been appointed, we could have hoped for more reforms. Instead, most of the new members of the committee are known for their conservative views on economics, mass media and security.
This does not bode well for either ordinary Chinese, who will pay a price, or for party bosses who are both victims and executioners.
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