|
EDITORIAL: Where
secrecy reigns
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) will hold its 18th National Congress this fall
as part of its one-in-a-decade change in party leadership. However, just when it
will do so remains a major question; no one outside the inner circle seems to
know or is willing to say. At a press conference earlier this week, the deputy
head of the CCP’s Organization Department, Wang Jingqing (王京清), could only say
that it was planned for the second half of the year.
Such secrecy is a reminder of the opaqueness that surrounds and shrouds the
workings of both the party and the Chinese government. The world knows there
will be a party congress. It knows that Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) will
be handing over the reins of the party ahead of his stepping down from the
presidency early next year. It is clear that his heir apparent is Chinese Vice
President Xi Jinping (習近平). About the only thing that can be said with
conviction about the CCP congress is that it will be held at the Great Hall of
the People in Beijing.
Now compare and contrast the Chinese secrecy with the openness that surrounds
Taiwan’s system, in which everybody knows who the contenders will be well before
a party’s leadership election — or in the case of the Chinese Nationalist Party
(KMT), the contender, since the KMT, like the CCP, prides itself on presenting a
unified face to the public and doesn’t think that intra-party democracy is
really a good idea. Party platforms are hashed out in public.
Or look at the US, with the upcoming Democratic and Republican party conventions
ahead of November’s general elections. The Democrats will be meeting for a week
in Charlotte, North Carolina, starting on Sept. 3. The announcement of the
Charlotte meeting was made in February last year. Republicans will be meeting
the week before in Tampa, Florida. The choice of Tampa was made in May 2010.
Both parties have begun to release the line-up of speakers at the conventions.
Wang said the procedures for selecting delegates to the party congress have been
streamlined to make them more efficient and that there will be more candidates
for delegates than available seats so local party committees will see some
“democracy” in voting for delegates. However, the selection of the real powers
remains hidden. How the 200 members of the party’s Central Committee will be
selected or how they will choose the politburo and its nine-member Standing
Committee, Wang refused to say. Since seven of those nine members will be
standing down, it is only natural to wonder who their replacements might be, or
even who might be up for contention. But from Beijing, there is only silence.
And yet Wang’s spokesman, Deng Shengming (鄧聲明), stressed that the electoral
system was very open and transparent.
What is known is that in May, more than 300 top party cadres were asked to list
the officials they thought should make the Standing Committee. According to
rumors from Beijing, several people linked to Hu’s political base did not do as
well as some had expected.
The other thing that is known is that one impediment to a smooth-running party
congress is about to be cleared away — the scandal surrounding former Chongqing
secretary-general Bo Xilai (薄熙來), whose rapid plummet from grace earlier this
year reopened public concerns about corruption at the highest levels of the
party. His wife, Gu Kailai (谷開來), whose seven-hour murder trial took place a
week ago, will hear her verdict on Monday. Whatever the eventual decision is
about Bo, it looks like his wife is going to take the flak.
The lid that is kept on information about the halls of power in Beijing is
simply another reminder of how little is known about its decisionmaking process
and the decisionmakers. While some may feel that there is too much
publicity-seeking and a surfeit of information during the Taiwanese and US
electoral process, it is far better than the alternative. All Beijing’s secret
machinations do is raise suspicions and distrust.
|
