Hu, China Accelerating Reform

The Fourth Plenum of the 16th CPC Central Committee concluded in Beijing on Sunday, September 19, presenting a new policy direction of the fourth generation of leaders led by Communist Party chief and president Hu Jintao, concluded in Beijing on Sunday, September 19.

The fourth plenum’s main focus was how to transform the party to match the change of an era. “The main agenda includes how to improve the party, and this will only possible through strengthening the people’s support and streamlining a system suitable for change,” a Chinese expert on politics said.

This fourth plenum served as a test board for prime minister Wen Jiabao to prove his ruling ability, and the results will be expected soon. If his test score is good, the power base of the fourth generation of leaders will be more solid. If not, restraining influences within the party will be expected to go on for a while.

In particular, talk of the resignation of Jiang Zemin, China`s military chief and former president, announced during the plenum, has drawn a lot of attention since this will obviously lead to an inevitable change in power structure. Party members were reported to have discussed measures for democratization within the party, such as, an inspection system, member selection in a democratic way, and more ballots. However, despite all these, it has been said no major policy decisions were made.

In and out of the party, democratization through encouraging new ideas regardless of one’s position and making the decision-making process transparent has been the most important challenge for reform, but this plenum showed no signs of further discussion on this subject. Critics say it is the very limit the Communist’s one party ruling system has.

Knowing this, Chinese Communist Party chief Hu Jintao, unlike his charismatic predecessors of old days, is trying to expand his support through the party’s democratization and transparency of policies, according to observers in Beijing. His strategy is perhaps to serve as a central pivot of a collective leadership system, not as a man with absolute power.

Also, in the forth plenum, the need for party reform have emerged to advance the 1.3 billion Chinese population’s quality of life. As President Hu stressed in his report at the forth plenum, in order for the idea of regarding people as the essence of the nation to become rooted, the ability to carry out policies consistently becomes critical. Realizing this, party leaders are reported to have had a deep discussion over how to stabilize the leadership and ruling system, improve party member quality, and deal with those incapable of following the winds of reform and change.

Yoo-Seong Hwang yshwang@donga.com