When a crucial meeting of Chinese Communist Party leaders concluded, the biggest news was not of what transpired at the meeting.
When a crucial meeting of Chinese Communist Party leaders concluded on Friday, the biggest news was not of what transpired at the meeting — but of what didn’t: the anticipated anointment of the country’s next leader.
Vice-president Xi Jinping, 56, was widely expected to be appointed vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission — the supreme military command — signalling that he would take over from President Hu Jintao in 2012; but the four-day plenum meeting of the Communist Party’s central committee concluded without that appointment.
Instead, the meeting ended with vague promises of ‘inner-party democracy’ and campaigns against ‘ethnic separatism’ and corruption. To some observers, the silence on Xi’s appointment was thunderous.
The failure to anoint Xi, the privileged son of former vice-premier and Xi Zhongxun, is a break from tradition and has given rise to speculation that the party leadership is perhaps divided about the transfer of power. Although it isn’t mandatory for a future head of the party and the state to hold a military post, that has almost invariably been the path to power.
‘Chinawatcher’ and author Willy Lam notes that there are no specifications in the party charter concerning when a ‘crown prince’ should be made a Central Military Commission member. And given that President Hu is the undisputed leader, he could count on the support of the majority of Central Committee members who are loyal to him and deny Xi his prize.
But there’s also been speculation that Hu may be delaying Xi’s entrance on the big stage in order to manoeuvre for himself another full term as CMC chairman. Reports in Hong Kong, however, claim that Xi was in fact voted into the CMC, but that his appointment will be announced for unspecified reasons after the October 1 Natonal Day festivities.
There’s also been speculation that a recent widespread crackdown on civil liberties advocates, including lawyers, is linked to Xi’s positioning himself as a hardline leader with an eye on securing the leadership in 2012.
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