The Chinese Communist Party?s (CCP) 18th Party Congress that has just concluded in Beijing offered a rare chance to observe what is happening behind the scenes in Chinese politics.
China has a non-democratic regime and the transfer of power at the highest level is an incredibly sensitive time for the authorities. It is also fraught with difficulties.
In 1989, following the Tiananmen Square Massacre, the party?s old guard held an impromptu and unofficial meeting during which it decided upon the next two generations of leaders, Jiang Zemin (???), party general secretary from 1993 to 2003, and Hu Jintao (???), party general secretary from 2003 to the present. This decision was based upon traditional, rather than institutional authority within the party.
The 18th Party Congress could be said to be the first transfer of power based upon neither charismatic nor traditional authority, but rather based on background factional jostling.
Another aspect that sets this power transfer apart from previous ones is that it is no longer set against a backdrop of rapid economic growth. The new leader will not be able to put off addressing the stark contradictions that exist within the country. He will also be faced with a depressed global economy.
Opinion on the direction China should take is polarized within academic circles, society and even within the CCP itself, reflected in the harsh struggle over policy lines favored by different individuals within the party leadership.
It is against this backdrop that a rather unusual sequence of events occurred last year. In April, following the annual National Committee of the Chinese People?s Political Consultative Conference and plenary sessions of the National People?s Congress, there was the incident involving Wang Lijun (???) and Bo Xilai (???), which gave some amazing insights into the infighting among senior party leadership.
Then there was the case of Chen Guangcheng (???), exposing the absurdities of inflated powers, and their abuse, within the CCP?s Political and Legal Committee.
Meanwhile, Bo is being kept out of the public eye as part of the shuanggui (??) extralegal detention and interrogation system for disgraced cadres. There has been an information blackout on how he is being dealt with.
However, in that short time the international media have been reporting how members of Xi Jinping?s (???) extended family have huge assets, just before Xi himself disappeared from public view, reportedly due to back problems.
Not long after Xi finally re-emerged came the news that the nominations of the seven new members of the Politburo Standing Committee had been confirmed in a meeting between Hu, Xi and Jiang, and just after this the decision was made to punish Bo with shuangkai (??), double expulsion ? from the party and from his administrative post. Just when everyone thought the excitement was over, another wave of incidents occurred.
Anti-Japanese protests erupted throughout China over the territorial dispute involving the Diaoyutai Islands (???) ? known as the Senkakus in Japan ? with Chinese chanting the slogan: ?The Diaoyutais belong to China.? Curiously, this slogan was sometimes followed with ?and Bo Xilai belongs to the people.?
More recently, and more shockingly, was the report in the New York Times that family members of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (???) had amassed a fortune. The Washington Post also reported that Xi?s ?back problems? were the result of his being hit by a chair when a meeting of the second generation ?princelings? got out of hand.
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