Chinese Vice-President Xi Jinping has been appointed as a vice-chairman of the country's Central Military Commission, a move seen as confirmation that he is on track to succeed President Hu Jintao when his term expires in 2012.
The Communist Party of China's (CPC) Central Committee announced his promotion in a communiqué issued after a five-day plenary session held here to discuss the country's next five-year plan.
Mr. Xi's appointment to the Central Military Commission (CMC) is a crucial step in his rise up the party's ranks, which is expected to culminate in his taking over as the general secretary of the CPC and as President when Mr. Hu's term ends in 2013.
Mr. Xi (57) is the sixth most powerful figure in the CPC, serving on the Standing Committee of its Politburo. He belongs to a generation of leaders known as “princelings”, or children of former party leaders. He has served as party boss in Shanghai, and is known for favouring economic reforms and liberalisation.
His promotion comes at a time of reported differences within the top leadership over taking forward political reforms.
A communiqué issued after the Central Committee's meeting on Monday evening said the party would make “vigorous yet steady” efforts to promote political restructuring, but did not specify what those measures were.
Also in focus at the meeting was China's twelfth five-year plan (2011-2015). The communiqué said the plan would facilitate “substantial progress in transforming the economic development pattern”, and “promote China's comprehensive national strength, international competitiveness and better shield against risks.”
China would also “further boost people's incomes, enhance social construction and deepen reform and opening-up”, the communiqué said. The next plan would also undertake “major” economic restructuring, and hasten reform of social security and healthcare.
The document said the CPC had to “adapt to the changes of domestic and international situations and comply with the people's new expectations of living a better life”.
Yu Keping, a political scholar and CPC official, said this week that any political restructuring in the plan would likely target five areas of governance reform: building a responsible government, improving public services, increasing transparency, tackling corruption and creating a government that functioned within the rule of law.
Official media have stressed that any political reforms would likely be restricted to administrative changes to improve governance, amid renewed calls in recent days, from both Premier Wen Jiabao and former CPC leaders, for greater political freedom and democracy.
Cautioning against any democratic reforms, the official Global Times newspaper warned in an editorial that “countries from the Third World”, where Western “systems were enforced”, suffered from “severe poverty, social turmoil and even war”, and China would “follow its roadmap in a gradual manner”.
Scholars say any moves towards political restructuring in the next five-year plan would be, at the most, small, incremental administrative changes within the existing governance structure. Wang Yukai, a scholar at the Chinese Academy of Governance, told Xinhua, the reforms would include steps “to build an effective and accountable government”, but stressed that the ultimate aim would be to strengthen the legitimacy of the ruling party.
