The biggest news out of the Communist Party's 17th National Congress was its hint about the new leadership lineup for 2012. Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang - party bosses in Shanghai and Liaoning , respectively - emerged as the nation's likely future president and premier. But that news was rather trivial compared to the underlying message.
The congress cements a new era when leadership successions no longer breed huge crises. That period of chaotic uncertainty ended with the departure of the previous administration.
Think about it. Mao Zedong purged his would-be successor, Liu Shaoqi , who eventually died in detention. Mao then picked Lin Biao to succeed him, but Lin died in a plane crash while reportedly trying to flee the country. Mao's eventual successor, Hua Guofeng , served less than a full term in office before being ousted by Deng Xiaoping .
China's history is full of abrupt leadership changes resulting from factional infighting within the party. Leadership successions caused a lot of crises for the Communist Party and the entire nation, since the party dominated the country's political life.
The 1982 constitution set formal term limits for national leaders - a maximum of two terms for the national president and premier. But a mechanism for succession in the party was nowhere in sight.
That was a big problem, since party leaders were the natural occupants of key positions in the national government. Without term limits for them in the party's charter, the constitution could hardly ensure smooth transfers of power.
And they remained far from smooth. Because of the political swings preceding and following the Tiananmen student movement in 1989, two reform-minded party leaders, Hu Yaobang and Zhao Ziyang , failed to finish their full terms.