SALON

Wednesday, Nov 14, 2012 10:45 AM UTC

How selection of China’s new leadership works

By

Topics: From the Wires,

How selection of China's new leadership worksChinese vice President Xi Jinping, center, a head of Central Commission for Discipline Inspection He Guoqiang, left, and a Chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference Jia Qinglin, right, raise their hand to show approval for a work report during the closing ceremony for the 18th Communist Party Congress held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, Wednesday Nov. 14, 2012. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)(Credit: Lee Jin-man)

China’s Communist elite are meeting to install a new generation of leaders in a process that is part public show and part backroom politicking.

At the center of the spectacle is the Communist Party congress, a gathering held once every five years that ended Wednesday and is the 18th such event in the party’s history. The congress is more interlude than climax. Important decisions are made by current and retired leaders, some of whom are not even on the congress delegates’ roster, in bargaining that began years ago and has largely been already resolved.

Here’s a look at how it works:

THE DELEGATES

Selecting delegates to the congress began months ago, with recommendations made by the party’s 82 million members, which are then vetted, winnowed and voted on twice. In practice, the selection is controlled by the party’s personnel division, giving the leadership room to make sure the powerful and their key proteges are included. President Hu Jintao, who will retire as party general secretary, is a delegate from Jiangsu province, where he grew up but has not lived for four decades. Most of the 2,268 delegates are chosen to show that the congress is broadly representative. Only the opinions of a small subset matter. One power-broker, retired President Jiang Zemin, is a specially invited delegate, a sign of his continuing influence in the leadership bargaining.

THE CONGRESS

Held over seven days, the congress selected the Central Committee, the party’s policy-setting body, naming 376 full members and non-voting alternates drawn from the upper echelons of the party, government and military. The congress also named the party’s internal watchdog agency. Though the powerful hold sway in determining the outcome, there is room for dissent on the margins. Candidates outnumber seats by a tiny percentage. Vice President Xi Jinping, who is expected to replace Hu as party chief, barely made it into the committee in 1997 in what was seen as a vote against nepotism. His father was a patriarch of the revolution. This time rank-and-file delegates have been told to “maintain unity” with the leadership.

THE LEADERSHIP

After the congress ends, the Central Committee meets Thursday to select a Politburo, roughly 25 members, and from that group, the Politburo Standing Committee, the apex of power. The current standing committee has nine members, though party-connected academics say that may be whittled to seven this time. Two members are considered shoo-ins: Xi and Vice Premier Li Keqiang, who is expected to be named premier. The Central Committee also appoints the party commission that oversees the military. A critical question is whether Hu will stay as military commission head; a top general said Wednesday Hu would not. His predecessor, Jiang, did so, hanging on for more than two years and casting a shadow over Hu’s efforts to consolidate power.

THE BACKSTORY

Choosing the new leaders involves fractious bargaining that attempts to balance out factions and interest groups in the party. Two of the next leaders, Xi and Li, were anointed five years ago, inducted into Hu’s leadership to provide continuity. Xi is seen as ex-President Jiang’s man; Li as Hu’s. Deciding the rest of the lineup has seen unexpectedly sharp-elbowed jostling this year. Bo Xilai, a populist politician seen as a rising star, was cashiered after an aide disclosed that his wife murdered a British businessman. He awaits prosecution, and deciding his fate divided the leadership. A Hu ally was also sidelined after his son died in a Ferrari crash, weakening Hu. How weak will be apparent by counting his allies in the new leadership.

HIDDEN RULES

China, like most Communist governments, has a history of violent, unpredictable leadership successions. One of revolutionary leader Mao Zedong’s named successors died in an alleged failed coup. Party leaders have instituted informal age and term limits to smooth out power transfers. Party chiefs are limited to two five-year terms, while senior leaders 68 years or older at the time of a congress are considered too old to serve in a new leadership. Jiang’s stepping aside for Hu in 2002 was the first orderly succession since the party came to power in 1949.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 0 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations