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Communist Party sets a
date
BEIJING - The Communist
Party of China (CPC) has put to rest months of
speculation and announced the date of the party's 16th
National Congress. It is to convene in Beijing on
November 8.
Despite
rumors that the party's chief, President Jiang Zemin,
76, would cling to power, the congress is expected to
pave the way for the first orderly transition of power in the history
of communist China. Five of China's top seven leaders
at the all-powerful Politburo, as well as half the country's ministers
and provincial leaders, are to be replaced at the
congress.
The
Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee decided at
a recent plenary meeting to propose the November date to
the Seventh Plenum of the 15th CPC Central Committee to
be held soon. The congress typically lasts about a week.
Past party congresses
- they take place every five years - have usually taken
place in September or October, and it is
widely believed that this year's meeting was delayed
so that Jiang would hold China's top jobs when he
visits President George W Bush's ranch in Texas, on
October 25. After meeting with Bush, Jiang is to attend
the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders' summit in Mexico.
Jiang is also expected to step down as president
next March.
Jiang and other leaders over the age
of 70 are due to step down at the congress, although
rumors have persisted that Jiang wants to remain as head
of the party rather than hand over to his designated
heir, Vice President Hu Jintao. Another rumor had it
that Prime Minister Zhu Rongji could stay on as well to
help handle China's first years in the World Trade
Organization.
The 16th CPC National Congress,
the first in the new century, takes place at a time when
China has entered a new development stage of
accelerating its drive to modernize its brand of
socialism, state media said.
The congress will
hold high the banner of Deng Xiaoping Theory and
comprehensively carry out the important thoughts of
Jiang's "Three Represents", which call on the CPC always
to represent the development trend of China's advanced
productive forces, the orientation of China's advanced
culture and the fundamental interests of the
overwhelming majority of the Chinese people.
Jiang's theory calls for opening the doors of
the party, which traditionally represents workers and
peasants, to private entrepreneurs, a group with a stake
in promoting economic reform, private property rights
and the rule of law.
The congress will review
the party's work in the past five years since its 15th
National Congress, and sum up the basic experience the
party has acquired from its efforts to unite and lead
people of all ethnic groups for the great practice of
building socialism with Chinese characteristics since
the beginning of reform, especially since the Fourth
Plenum of the 13th CPC Central Committee in 1989.
The congress is also expected to make strategic
arrangements for the overall advancement of China's
reform and socialist modernization drive, as well as for
the overall advancement of the grand project of Party
building in the new century and the new development
stage.
The announcement of the date of the
congress follows three weeks of secretive talks on the
leadership change in the seaside resort of Beidaihe that
wound up in mid-August. China's rulers have given little
clue on what was decided, fueling the rumors of
disagreement in the corridors of power.
A new
CPC Central Committee and a new Central Commission for
Discipline Inspection will be elected at the congress.
(Asia Times Online/Asia Pulse/XIC)
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