China Communist Congress To Name New Leader

By Mark Stone, China Correspondent

A week-long Communist Party Congress has opened in Beijing marking the beginning of a vital leadership transition for the world's second largest economy and most populous nation.

At the end of the process, a new leader will be announced who will be set to rule one-fifth of the world's population for the next 10 years.

That man will almost certainly be Xi Jinping. He will be installed as the new general secretary of the Communist Party, and therefore by default, the new head of state and Chinese president.

The pivotal meeting will take place near Tiananmen Square

China's method of shifting power is taking place just two days after the US election and the difference between the two could not be more stark.

The 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China is a remarkably opaque event.

Vague details of what to expect over the coming week were only announced on Wednesday, along with the date that the congress will end.

At the start of the event, 2,000 delegates, said to represent the Communist Party's 80 million members, filed into The Great Hall of the People next to Beijing's Tiananmen Square.

Sitting before them were the nine members of the outgoing Standing Committee. They are the nine most powerful men in the country and include the outgoing President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao.

President Hu addresses the Communist Congress

The delegates listened to President Hu deliver a speech in which he is outlined what he and the Communist Party consider to have been a "golden decade" for China.

Mr Hu told delegates that the Communist Party needed to move into the 21st Century but there was no suggestion of the reform that many are calling for.

"We do not go down the road rigidly and without change," he said. "But we do not go by another road either."

"At present, as the global, national and our party's conditions continue to undergo profound changes, we are faced with unprecedented opportunities for development as well as risks and challenges unknown before," Mr Hu said.

Security across the Chinese capital has been tight ever since the date of the Congress was announced two weeks ago.

Among the sea of red flags and Communist Party banners in Tiananmen Square are significant numbers of security officials.

As well as regular police, military police and plain-clothes officers, the Communist Party has the support of an estimated 1.4 million volunteers recognisable by their red armbands.

Chinese paramilitary policemen guard the Great Hall Of The People

The sale of knives has been suspended along with remote controlled planes and helicopters.

There are reports that bus companies and taxi drivers have been ordered to seal their vehicle windows shut to stop protesters from distributing anti-government flyers on Beijing's traffic clogged streets.

During Mr Hu's decade as leader, China has become the world's second largest economy.

Mr Hu (left, with Barack Obama in 2009) led China for the "golden decade"

In 2002, it had a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $1.45trn, smaller than that of the UK. Today its GDP stands at $7.3trn.

But with the quite remarkable economic growth have come significant problems.

Culturally and socially the country has moved very little. Rampant corruption is a huge issue. The gap between the rich and the poor has widened significantly.

Industrialisation has produced environmental problems on a devastating scale.

Take all these factors and then combine them with a population which is much more technologically connected and geographically mobile than it was 10 years ago and the result could be extremely tricky for the incoming leadership team.

That new team; the new Standing Committee, will be revealed at the end of the Congress next Wednesday. The identity of the seven members (it is to be reduced by two) will not be confirmed until they walk onto the stage of the Great Hall.

Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang

China Communist Congress To Name New Leader

Dengan url

http://tampolantelak.blogspot.com/2012/11/china-communist-congress-to-name-new.html

Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya

China Communist Congress To Name New Leader

namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link

China Communist Congress To Name New Leader

sebagai sumbernya