President Hu Jintao's legacy seen as one of stability but stagnation
It's been a golden decade under the president, says the state media, but the critics point to social, economic and environmental woes, and growing mistrust between the people and government
It's the beginning of the end for Hu Jintao's decade-long reign over the world's last major communist power, with Beijing preparing for a once-in-a-decade leadership succession in just a few weeks' time.
Hu, the head of the People's Republic's fourth generation leadership, is preparing to pass the baton to heir apparent Xi Jinping and a new group of leaders.
In a bid to drown out discordantassessments of the past decade, the party propaganda machine has been at full throttle, lavishing praise on China's accomplishments under Hu and Premier Wen Jiabao.
It's been 10 long, hard but glorious years, state media declare. Naturally, that's how 70-year-old Hu wants to be remembered, along with his two pet slogans - the "scientific concept of development" and "building a harmonious society" - enshrined in the party constitution five years ago.
In July, in one of his last key speeches in the run-up to the party's 18th national congress, Hu claimed victory over a "string of severe challenges" along "an extremely bumpy road" since becoming the party's general secretary in November 2002.
Hu appears anxious to secure his own legacy before he steps down from the pinnacle of power, but is also aware that many people take such self-promotion, one of the trademarks of the self-perpetuating communist regime, with a pinch of salt. He sounded a note of caution in the speech to a group of senior central and local government cadres, many of them poised for key roles after the party congress.