Party meeting opens amid calls for change
The Communist Party opens its annual meeting today against an intriguing political backdrop as calls for democratic reform have been mounting and speculation heats up on the future party leadership line-up.
The official agenda for the four-day party plenum - the most important annual gathering for party leaders - will be agreeing a strategic development blueprint for 2011-15.
However, much of the political intrigue will focus on whether Vice-President Xi Jinping , the long-anticipated successor to Hu Jintao as president and party chief, will be inducted into the top military policy-setting body, the Central Military Commission, as expected. Hu currently heads the body.
Xi didn't get the nod at last year's plenum, which raised a few eyebrows and intensified speculation about party factions fighting.
A total of 204 Central Committee members and 167 alternates are expected at the Jingxi Hotel in western Beijing for the meeting.
The plenum begins amid increasing calls for political reform, which have made waves on the internet and in national and provincial newspapers in recent days after Premier Wen Jiabao's high-profile statements over the past two months.
Reform discussion then escalated when jailed dissident Liu Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last Friday.
Twenty-three former high-ranking officials and media leaders spiced up the atmosphere this week by publishing online an open letter to the top legislature demanding freedom of the press and the abolition of media censorship as a first step towards political reform. The letter has so far collected the signatures of 476 well-connected citizens from all walks of life.
Tao Shilong , a geoscience scholar, posted the signed name list on his blog, and it was widely circulated via online forums and bulletin boards before being erased by censors last night.
Tao, 81, said press freedom could lay the groundwork for more meaningful political reform.
'We refuse to sit back and do nothing just because it's unlikely to make a difference,' he said. 'Some social conflicts are so intense and deeply embroiled in the political system.
'Rampant corruption and the widening income gap are generally recognised issues that must be addressed fundamentally by carrying out complete reform of the current system.'Political reform will definitely face enormous obstacles, he added, mainly from a privileged elite clinging to their power. Compromises between different factions are essential to reach an agreement.
Analysts expect the issue of political reform to be brought up at the plenum in one way or another, although this plenum is supposed to be about economic planning. Many saw the situation as a crossroads: reform or die.
Some criticised Wen as a talker, not a doer, while others remained hopeful of a significant manoeuvre by Wen, widely considered more liberal than Hu.
Qian Hong , a signatory and a researcher at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences' Economics Institute, said political reform wouldn't happen unless all factions stop debating class analysis.
The party plenum would probably 'unify thoughts' to pave the way for more significant reform in the 18th Party Congress in 2012, he said.
Others warned of false hope, cautioning that the current political environment was hardly ripe for political reform.
Zhu Jianguo , a Shenzhen-based author and independent scholar, said political reform was unlikely during Hu's tenure, as evidenced by tightening press censorship and the government's attitude to Liu Xiaobo's prize.
'Any leaders like Wen who publicly supported political reform are not truly reformers,' Zhu said. 'He is simply a man of words flagging up universal values to play up to liberal intellectuals and gain international support for China in the currency war.' What Wen said didn't represent his own opinions, he added.
