Teams to pave way for reshuffle and theory task

Mainland leaders have set up two teams to spearhead the preparations for October's 16th Communist Party Congress, sources in the capital and a pro-Beijing newspaper said yesterday.

One of the teams will be involved in preparing for the personnel reshuffle, the other will work on communist theory, the Hong Kong-based, Beijing-backed Wen Wei Po said.

It quoted party sources as saying that the teams were mainly composed of cadres from the Central Propaganda Department, Central Party School and Central General Office.

One of the teams would be responsible for drafting President Jiang Zemin's work report and working on his Theory of the Three Representatives - which holds that the party must represent the foremost production forces, the most advanced culture and the interests of the masses, and which is expected to be incorporated into his keynote policy address.

Mr Jiang's theory is aimed at paving the way for entrepreneurs to become party members, as the business sector is playing an increasingly important role on the mainland.

Wen Wei Po said in a separate report that the Central Party School planned to break a party protocol by recommending that some of the young to middle-aged elite cadres attend other universities or institutions for training.

Experts have also been recruited from other institutions to teach at the school, in the hope that concepts of modern society can be used to revamp the Central Party School's outdated courses on Marxism theory.

The move was viewed as an attempt to reduce the resistance of hardline Marxists to the idea of recruiting business people into the party, analysts said.

The team involved in the personnel reshuffle has created a timetable dictating that party organisations at local level must nominate the candidates they want as members of the policy-setting Central Committee. They must also nominate the alternate members - the reserves - for the committee.

These candidates are expected to stand for election at the 16th Party Congress so that some of the less-popular nominees can be screened out. The 300-odd Central Committee members and alternate members will then elect the members of the Politburo and its Standing Committee.

The central Government began reshuffling the provincial leadership in the second half of last year and is expected to finish this exercise by summer.

But the sources stressed that some of the party bosses appointed last year could still be replaced before the 16th Party Congress.

Meanwhile, the military has already replaced its chief officers in a number of military regions.