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Chinese Regime Keeps Quiet on Specifics of National Congress
The presumptive next head of the CCP, Xi Jinping, pictured on March 13 in the Great Hall of the People, in Beijing. (Lintao Zhang/Getty Images)
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) announced the full selection of delegates for the 18th National Party Congress, but did not reveal whether the arrangement of the paramount leaders in the Party Politburo would change, according to BBC’s Chinese-language website.
Wang Jingqing, vice minister of the Party’s Organization Department, said that 2,270 officials were carefully selected based on age, occupation, education, grassroots experience, and political competence, the BBC bureau reported.
“As for the number of members in the Politburo, I don’t know,” Wang was quoted as saying when asked whether the Politburo would retain nine seats or shrink to seven.
Wang was also vague about the date of the congress, reiterating previous statements that it would be held in the second half of the year in Beijing.
Various journalists commented on the CCP’s habit of keeping details of the Party’s crucial activities secret since the early stage of its formation.
AP reporter Christopher Bodeen said: “Habitual secrecy is a key characteristic of the ruling party, a product of its origins as a beleaguered guerrilla movement and more than 60 years of authoritarian rule with no opposition or free press. Little is known about the private lives of the leadership, and dates for major party events aren’t announced until the last minute.”
Washington Post correspondent Andrew Higgins made a similar remark in his review of Richard McGregor’s book The Party: The Secret World of China’s Communist Rulers.
“Guardian of the Party’s personnel files, the department handles key personnel decisions not only in the government bureaucracy, but also in business, media, the judiciary, and even academia. Its deliberations are all secret.”
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2012-08-15 23:20:44
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