- CHINA NEWS
- Updated November 7, 2012, 10:05 p.m. ET
- end quote from Google
China Leader Nods to Concerns Over Corruption
The Communist Party's 18th National Congress
has begun marking the country's official transition of power. The WSJ's
Brian Spegele tells us why this year President Hu Jintao wasted no time
warning the country about corruption.
BEIJING—China President Hu Jintao on Thursday
cast a note of urgency for the Chinese Communist Party to fight
corruption in its own ranks, arguing that official abuses of power could
"prove fatal to the party."
The comments by Mr. Hu in his last major speech as leader of the
party acknowledged rising public anger over abuses of power by China's
ruling elite – an issue brought to the forefront in the public fall of
former party star Bo Xilai this year.
Speaking Thursday morning in Beijing's Great Hall of the People, Mr.
Hu acknowledged corruption among Chinese officials was of major concern
to Chinese people. "If we fail to handle this issue well it could prove
fatal to the party" and the fall of the state, Mr. Hu said.
He added, "The whole party must keep in mind the trust the people
have placed in us and the great expectation they have of us," he said.
Chinese leaders have previous warned that corruption could threaten
the party's hold on power, though rarely in such clear terms at such a
high-profile event. Mr. Hu was speaking at the beginning of the 18th
Party Congress, where the party will next week unveil a new set of
leaders to succeed Mr. Hu and his generation of party officials, and the
speech was aired nationwide on state-run television.
The speech in many ways served as a closing argument for a set of
populist goals Mr. Hu has at times struggled to implement over the past
decade. It comes as much remains unknown about and what types of
economic and political goals his likely successor, Vice President Xi
Jinping, will pursue. Mr. Xi is widely expected to succeed Mr. Hu as
party leader at the end of the weeklong congress, and as China's
president next year.
Mr. Hu's tone of urgency was a departure from his speech at the
previous party congress in 2007, when he cited progress in the fight
against corruption.
The corruption issue is part of a broader conversation in China about
income disparity, the public's participation in governance as well as
the party's role in an era of increasing awareness and engagement for a
more digitally connected and empowered Chinese public. Those factors
figured strongly into the fall of Mr. Bo, who was once considered a
candidate for top party leadership before he was ousted as party leader
of the city of Chongqing. Mr. Bo now will likely face charges that
include corruption and abuse of power.
Mr. Hu also reiterated a populist that stuck to the party's previous
stated goals of improving the public's livelihood. Among other goals, he
urged officials to improve public housing and health-care programs, as
well as to empower China's growing consumer class. Still, he didn't
offer details of specific policy goals.
He also renewed calls for fostering a consumer culture in China, a
move pushed for by critics both inside and outside China who say the
nation's traditional dependence on big-ticket infrastructure and
government spending is unsustainable in the long term. "We should firmly
maintain the strategic focus of boosting domestic demand, speed up the
establishment of a long-term mechanism for increasing consumer demand,
unleash the potential of individual consumption, increase investment at a
proper pace, and expand the domestic market," he said.
Mr. Hu also called for further progress in reforming China's
political system, though he didn't offer details. "The reform of the
political structure is an important part of China's overall reform. We
must continue to make both active and prudent efforts to carry out the
reform of the political structure, and make people's democracy more
extensive, fuller in scope and sounder in practice," he said.
Mr. Hu and other soon-to-be party elders may continue to play
behind-the-scenes roles in coming years. State television lingered on
the presence of Jiang Zemin, who was party chief from 1989 to 2002,
suggesting the continued influence of the previous generation of leaders
in picking the new slate.
Write to Brian Spegele at
Brian.Spegele@wsj.co
The Guardian
No comments:
Post a Comment