BEIJING — China’s Communist Party leader, Hu Jintao, defended his decade in power today and warned that the country faces stark challenges at home and abroad.
He spoke at the start of a congress that will culminate in his retirement and the appointment of a new generation of leaders after a transition marked by scandal and anxiety about the party’s future.
Hu told the ranks of party-picked delegates assembled in the Great Hall of the People that China faces a period of major change and “complicated domestic and international circumstances.” Seated near him was his presumed successor, Xi Jinping, who is all but certain to take over as party chief after the congress ends next week and to take the reins as state president next March.
Xi has privately signaled that he is aware of increasingly urgent calls from economists, intellectuals and some party insiders for a new round of market liberalization and even measured political relaxation to cure what they see as a deepening economic and social malaise.
Hu acknowledged the problems facing the party, including corruption, but avoided specific mention of the scandals that have blighted his final year in power.
“Currently, the conditions of the world, the country and the party are continuing to undergo profound changes,” he said, reading from excerpts from his report to the party congress, which convenes every five years.
“We are confronting unprecedented development opportunities and challenges,” he said, adding, “The gap between rich and poor is growing.”
While acknowledging that China’s wealth remains unbalanced among regions and unequally distributed, Hu also told the congress that his decade as top leader had given rise to robust economic growth and the makings of a “moderately prosperous society.”
“Over the past five years, there have been major achievements in every aspect of work,” he said. “Reform and opening up have gained major advances, and the people’s standard of living has clearly risen.”
Hu’s congress report is a big part of the public ceremony that accompanies China’s leadership transitions. But the real decisions about who will succeed him and his cohorts have been made in secretive negotiations involving senior officials and party elders.
In a show of unity, Hu earlier entered the cavernous assembly hall accompanied by the dominant party elder, former President Jiang Zemin, who shuffled gingerly to his seat. But party insiders have said Jiang, 86, played a big role in shaping the next leadership circle and voiced frustration with the record of Hu and Premier Wen Jiabao.
Contrary to some observers’ predictions, Hu did not play down the founder of the People’s Republic of China, Mao Zedong, whose revolutionary heritage sits increasingly awkwardly with urban middle-class wealth and values.
Hu repeated vows of “political system reform” in his report to the congress. But officials have made clear that the party’s notions of political change do not embrace any idea of full-fledged electoral democracy.
On the contrary, at a news conference Wednesday, the congress’ spokesman and deputy head of Communist Party propaganda, Cai Mingzhao, defended China’s current system.
Front Section, Pages 9 on 11/08/2012