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 centre of the spectacle is the Communist Party congress, a gathering held once every five years that 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 selects the Central Committee, the party’s policy-setting body. The most recent committee had 370 people, comprised of full members and non-voting alternates drawn from the upper echelons of the party, government and military. The congress also names 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.