The Hindu : China: change of personnel, not policies

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Nov 17, 2002

International

International

China: change of personnel, not policies

By P. S. Suryanarayana

BEIJING Nov. 16. The meticulously choreographed political succession at the highest echelons of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) has brought the ground realities, too, into a sharp focus. The change of personnel at the top does not translate into a drastic change of policies — at least, not for now.

A more important pointer to the future is that the CPC's latest statements can, if these are fully implemented, transform the basic representational character of the party so as to strengthen its hold on power in the world's most populous nation. The party's present policies, which may remain unchanged for at least the immediate future, have already been crafted to enhance the party's representational ethos.

The CPC amended its constitution during the just-concluded party congress to describe the communist organisation as the "vanguard of the whole of the Chinese people and the Chinese nation'' and not just the working class as in the first principles of socialism. The efforts that the CPC might make from now onwards to become an all-inclusive party are also designed to enlarge the party's overall political space. In the absence of any plans to change China's basic political system itself, the CPC's strategic thinking becomes quite obvious.

While Chinese sources on the inside track see the inevitability of the present changes of personnel as a response to the political dynamics of China itself in the current international environment, there is no hard evidence to indicate any conflict of interests or personality clashes within the CPC at this time. This explains the final configuration of the CPC leadership that emerged at the end of the latest party congress here. Although China's President, Jiang Zemin, bowed out as the CPC General Secretary in favour of Hu Jintao, the overall political consensus within the organisation has resulted in a political arrangement that would turn the spotlight on both these leaders for different reasons, though.

Though Mr. Jiang and a few other leaders will gradually fade away from the party's centre stage as a direct result of the latest leadership arrangement, China's President will continue to guide the party, not only behind the scenes but also within the open arena itself. Mr. Jiang's continuance as the Chairman of the CPC's powerful Central Military Commission is important in the context of the party's supervisory control over China's armed forces. China's political system is not defined by the more traditional notions of ``praetorian'' orientations about the role of a country's military forces in its general governance.

Contemporary China has already crafted a political system that bears the imprint of the country's "civilisational traits'' from the era of Confucius onwards as also the influences of Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong's thoughts besides Deng Xiaoping's Theory that progressively introduced a "socialist system'' to some basic trends of capitalism itself in the larger national interest of peace and prosperity. It is this political background that explains the comfort-level of Jiang-Hu team in their respective capacities as Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the CPC's Central Military Commission.

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