Subscribe free to our newsletters via your
. 24/7 Space News .




SUPERPOWERS
China's Communist Party prepares for power handover
by Staff Writers
Beijing (AFP) Nov 1, 2012


China's political elite are expected to oust disgraced figure Bo Xilai and jostle for leadership roles in their last formal meeting which opened Thursday ahead of next week's landmark power handover.

The Communist Party's Central Committee convened behind closed doors, state media said, with 500 senior members brought together ahead of a congress which will open on November 8 to usher in leaders for the next decade.

The larger congress, which groups around 2,000 party members, is set to name Vice President Xi Jinping to succeed outgoing President Hu Jintao, while Vice Premier Li Keqiang is expected to replace outgoing Premier Wen Jiabao.

Little else is known about who will fill a supporting cast to run the world's second-largest economy, and observers say candidates are still vying for top jobs in a game of intrigue played out beyond the view of the media.

At stake are believed to be between five and seven seats on the party's elite Politburo Standing Committee, China's highest decision-making body, and up to half of the 25 or so seats on the second-tier Politburo, analysts say.

Joseph Cheng, a expert on Chinese politics at City University of Hong Kong, said senior figures would have drawn up lists of candidates for the positions.

"These lists are important because they will effect personnel arrangements for top leaders at the ministries and in the provinces and so on, so these things have to be finalised," he told AFP.

One man once tipped for a senior role who will not be on the lists is Bo, who was stripped of his parliament seat and lost legal immunity last week, paving the way for him to face trial for corruption and other serious charges.

The party announced in September that he would be expelled but his formal ouster is a final piece of housekeeping the leaders are expected to conclude before the congress starts, analysts say.

A scandal surrounding him and his administration in the southwestern city of Chongqing, which has seen his wife convicted for the murder of a British businessman, has plagued the sensitive leadership transition.

Observers say the affair has split the top leadership, with reformers using it as ammunition to advance their push for democratic reform, while conservatives scrambled to shore up the image of a ruling party mired in corruption allegations.

In the absence of competitive elections, the ruling party has in the past 20 years sought to solidify a pattern of leadership transition that is predictable and stable in order to avoid power struggles, Cheng said.

"But with the Bo Xilai case, obviously the process has become more competitive and even ugly," he said.

Further complicating the political landscape is a New York Times report that said the prime minister's family had accumulated assets worth $2.7 billion, in a blow to his self-styled image as a common man leading the fight against graft.

Another scandal involves the son of a close aide of President Hu, who crashed a Ferrari in a fatal accident in March that raised questions about how the family of a politician could have accumulated such wealth.

State news agency Xinhua said the plenum of the outgoing 17th Communist Party Central Committee, which began Thursday and could last up to four days, will finalise several reports to be tabled at next week's 18th Party Congress.

These include an amendment to the Communist Party charter which it did not detail.

Ahead of the congress, the ruling party has further tightened already strict censorship of the media and Internet, while cities have been flooded with police and security personnel.

Over 1.4 million people have volunteered to help police "maintain stability" in Beijing in the run up to the landmark meeting, state-run news agency Xinhua reported.

"Since early October, Chinese authorities have engaged in a campaign of intimidation and incarceration to preempt any potential expressions of dissent or protest," Renee Xia, director of the Chinese Human Rights Defenders said in a statement.

"China's top political leaders are very nervous, as they have since early this year been consumed by one of the most destabilising and disharmonious power struggles in decades."

.


Related Links
Learn about the Superpowers of the 21st Century at SpaceWar.com
Learn about nuclear weapons doctrine and defense at SpaceWar.com






Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle








SUPERPOWERS
China's Communist Party prepares for power handover
Beijing (AFP) Nov 1, 2012
Top members of China's Communist Party are expected to debate leadership changes and oust disgraced figure Bo Xilai as they hold their last meeting starting Thursday ahead of a power transition next week. The plenum of the 17th Communist Party Central Committee, held behind closed doors, could last up to four days and will be closely watched for clues about next week's pivotal congress. ... read more


SUPERPOWERS
Study: Moon basin formed by giant impact

NASA's LADEE Spacecraft Gets Final Science Instrument Installed

Astrium presents results of its study into automatic landing near the Moon's south pole

European mission to search for moon water

SUPERPOWERS
Curiosity's Tastes of Martian Soil Offer Insights on Mineral Composition

NASA Rover's First Soil Studies Help Fingerprint Martian Minerals

Curiosity on Mars sits on rocks similar to those found in marshes in Mexico

Continuing Work With Scoops at 'Rocknest'

SUPERPOWERS
Voyager observes magnetic field fluctuations in heliosheath

New NASA Online Science Resource Available for Educators and Students

'First' Pakistan astronaut wants to make peace in space

Space daredevil Baumgartner is 'officially retired'

SUPERPOWERS
China to launch 11 meteorological satellites by 2020

China makes progress in spaceflight research

Patience for Tiangong

China launches civilian technology satellites

SUPERPOWERS
Crew Prepares for Spacewalk After Progress Docks

Crew Preparing for Cargo Ship, Spacewalk

Russian cargo ship docks with ISS: official

Packed Week Ahead for Six-Member Crew

SUPERPOWERS
Ariane 5s are readied in parallel for Arianespace's next heavy-lift flights

Japan Plans to Launch New Carrier Rocket in 2013

EUTELSAT 21B and Star One C3 Set For Ariane 5 November Launch

Launcher assembly begins for Arianespace's seventh Ariane 5 mission in 2012

SUPERPOWERS
Physicists confirm first planet discovered in a quadruple star system

Planet-hunt data released to public

New Study Brings a Doubted Exoplanet 'Back from the Dead'

New small satellite will study super-Earths for ESA

SUPERPOWERS
Space Station's Orbit Raised to Avoid Space Junk

Zynga builds new version of social game 'CityVille'

SSBV Aerospace and Technology Group and SpaceMetric announce signing of MOU

UC Research Brings Us Step Closer to Rollable, Foldable e-Devices




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2014 - Space Media Network. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement