BEIJING: China's outgoing leader has acknowledged the ills that plague the
Communist Party but insisted it can cure itself, indicating no radical surgery
to either the economy or politics by his successor.
In likely his final political
testament given Thursday at China's ongoing Communist Party Congress, outgoing
President Hu Jintao delivered a stark warning to his successor Vice President
Xi Jinping on the rampant corruption infecting the ruling party.
"If we fail to handle this
issue well, it could prove fatal to the party and even cause the collapse of
the party and the fall of the state," Hu told more than 2,200 delegates
inside Beijing's cavernous Great Hall of the People.
But his report to the party at
its most important political event in five years put forward little in the way
of a road map for reform, which analysts said indicated a dangerous paralysis
in the Chinese communist system that could have dire consequences.
"The party has become
increasingly corrupt, the extent of corruption, graft and money grabbing has
totally stained the image of the party," Sun Wenguang, a retired academic
from east China's Shandong University, told AFP.
"If there is no power that
can confront the rotting away of the party, then it will lead to a social
crisis, an economic crisis or even an international crisis."
Hu is viewed by reformers as
having missed a prime opportunity to push through reform of the political and
economic systems during his ten years in power, a time when China enjoyed the
advantage of high economic growth rates that could have eased such a
transition.
Whether due to Hu's own cautious
style, or the restrictions of a system that relies on consensus rather than
bold leadership, critics say this failure has left China facing problems of
rising social unrest and worsening graft blamed on an unresponsive political
system.
Hu is also considered to have
failed to rejuvenate a growth model that leaves China over-reliant on exports
and investment, leading to unsustainable expansion that has spawned a rich-poor
gap, environmental degradation, and other ills.
That leaves his successor Xi
Jinping to deal with the aftermath.
When the congress ends next
Wednesday, Xi will inherit the reins of the world's largest political party,
whose 82 million members control all sectors of society, including the economy.
The lead-up to the congress has
been accompanied by intense speculation over whether Xi intends -- or is able
to -- act aggressively to contain ills such as the endemic corruption that Hu
warned could lead to the "collapse" of the party.
Xi, whose resume includes heading
Fujian and Zhejiang -- key eastern manufacturing provinces at the forefront of
China's economic reform effort -- is believed to be favoured by former Chinese
president Jiang Zemin.
Jiang, now a towering figure in
the party, is considered a proponent of reform.
While Hu's address warned of the
dangers of corruption and the need for a "new economic growth model"
he offered little in the way of a prescription beyond calls for faith in
"Marxism, Leninism, and Mao Zedong thought" and other party
boilerplates.
Hu's restating of party dogma,
insisting that the nation must unite behind the Communists in order to move
forward and that China would "never copy a Western political system",
were also interpreted by analysts as signs that as far as the party is
concerned it is business is usual, and real change remains distant.
"Conservative forces within
the Party are still very powerful," Qian Gang of the China Media Project
at the University of Hong Kong said in an analysis of Hu's speech.
"According to the line
marked out by the political report to the 18th National Congress, there is very
little prospect that substantive moves will be made on political reform."
Such contradictions between the
party's grave pronouncements and its actions point to an apparent inability to
clean its own house, say analysts, especially on corruption.
With regular reports of officials
abusing their power and flagrant acts of graft already a permanent fixture of
Chinese politics, western media reports have recently detailed huge fortunes
gathered by top leaders, including Xi.
The shocking scandal surrounding
Bo Xilai, an ousted senior leader once viewed as a rising star, also sullied
preparations for the five-yearly congress.
Bo's wife was convicted in August
of murdering a British businessman while he was been tossed from the party --
and is awaiting trial -- amid allegations of graft and abuse of power.
- AFP/fa
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