MCLC: Hu Jintao praises status quo

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: Hu Jintao praises status quo
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A video report accompanies the article below:

http://www.nytimes.com/video/2012/11/07/world/asia/100000001889842/chinas-1
8th-congress-.html

Kirk 

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Source: NYT (11/8/12):
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/09/world/asia/hu-jintao-exiting-communist-le
ader-cautions-china.html?ref=world

On Way Out, China’s Leader Offers Praise for the Status Quo
By IAN JOHNSON and KEITH BRADSHER

BEIJING — Capping 10 careful years at the helm of the Communist Party,
China’s top leader is stepping into history with a series of rear-guard
actions.

The leader, Hu Jintao, 69, is scheduled to step down as the party’s
general secretary next week, handing over much of his power to his
designated successor, Xi Jinping. But over the past few months, he has
made it clear that he has little interest in the bold changes to the
status quo that many Chinese now see as long overdue.

“He’s worried about how history will view him,” said Qian Gang, who works
with the China Media Project <http://cmp.hku.hk/> at the University of
Hong Kong. “On the whole, he is against reform.”

Mr. Hu made a key speech in July that dashed reformers’ hopes for measures
to resuscitate the faltering economy and release social pressures by
opening the political system. On Thursday, he wrote himself a glowing
eulogy: a 100-minute address to the 18th Party Congress that was also
meant to serve as a blueprint for Mr. Xi’s term in office.

In a voluminous, 64-page formal document issued at the party congress, Mr.
Hu nodded to almost every manner of change — economic, social, political
and environmental — and he opened the door to some potentially important
measures to limit the dominance of the state in the economy. But he
balanced those with warnings to guard against a rise in unrest, a striking
admission for a man whose signature slogan was to turn China into a
“harmonious society.”

“Social contradictions have clearly increased,” Mr. Hu wrote in the
document. “There are many problems concerning the public’s immediate
interests in education, employment, social security, health care, housing,
the environment, food and drug safety, workplace safety, public security,
and law enforcement.”

Mr. Hu also lauded his own contribution to Communist Party ideology:
“scientific development.” Most of his predecessors have had their own
ideologies enshrined as guiding state doctrines. His repetition in his
speech of the phrase, which means that the party should be pragmatic and
follow policies that are demonstrably effective, implied that he, too,
would be so honored.

The result was a speech that, while ostensibly supporting a new agenda,
actually represented an attempt to block much of it.

According to Mr. Qian, a leading expert on textual analysis of Chinese
leaders’ speeches, Mr. Hu’s speech hit on almost every antichange phrase
used by Chinese Communist leaders.

He referred to Communist China’s founder three times with the phrase “Mao
Zedong Thought,” and he said that the party must “resolutely not follow
Western political systems,” something not mentioned at the last congress
five years ago.

“They don’t say these terms lightly,” Mr. Qian said. “When they mention
it, it matters.”

Mr. Hu also coined a new term, pledging that the party will not follow the
“wicked way” of changing the party’s course.

Mr. Hu’s speech is thought to have been drawn up in cooperation with his
successor, Mr. Xi. While Mr. Xi has been consulting with liberal members
of China’s intelligentsia, he either did not oppose Mr. Hu’s direction or
was not able to change it.

That is important, observers say, because Mr. Xi will not exercise
unrestrained power when he takes over. Besides the other half-dozen
members on the Standing Committee of the party’s Politburo, he will also
have to listen to the advice of Mr. Hu; Mr. Hu’s own predecessor, Jiang
Zemin; and an estimated 20 other “senior leaders.” As if to emphasize
their role, these men were seated on the dais next to Mr. Hu. Many of them
are in their 70s and 80s and have exercised power for decades.

“Xi Jinping certainly won’t be a Gorbachev,” said Yao Jianfu, a former
official and researcher who closely follows Chinese politics and advocates
democratic change. “Every aspect of reform has an important precondition —
that the Communist Party remains in charge.”

Even though Mr. Hu’s speech was broadcast live on national television and
on screens in Beijing subway cars, gauging popular opinion was difficult.

Microbloggers, who mostly live in cities and are fairly well educated, at
times cast scorn on the talk. One blogger listed the Marxist terminology
that Mr. Hu used and wrote simply “madness.” Others used laughing
emoticons, while some delved closely into the speech for clues to new
policies. Some noted his fleeting mention of China’s unpopular
single-child policy.

Mr. Hu’s tough language on social issues contrasted with his strong
reaffirmation of the Communist Party’s commitment to the economic policy
mantra of “reform and opening up,” a policy that has produced soaring
trade and economic growth over the past three decades.

Many economists have begun to question, however, whether Mr. Hu’s tenure
has amounted to a “lost decade” for refashioning China’s investment-driven
economy into a broader, more stable system. State-owned enterprises have
gradually strengthened their roles in the economy through a combination of
monopoly power and access to cheap loans from state-owned banks.

Mr. Hu offered some encouragement for changes along that front by calling
for narrowing the government investment in state-owned enterprises to a
few industries “that comprise the lifeline of the economy and are vital to
national security.” It was one of the strongest hints to date that the
government is mulling whether it should play less of a role in managing
enterprises in many other industries.

Mr. Hu also paid heed on Thursday to complaints from entrepreneurs that
regulators, loan officers of state-owned banks, local zoning officials and
other government representatives discriminate against them in favor of
state-owned enterprises.

China must “ensure that economic entities under all forms of ownership
have equal access to factors of production in accordance with the law,
compete on a level playing field and are protected by the law as equals,”
he said.

He also endorsed a series of other economic liberalization moves that have
been discussed for years, although their progress has sometimes been slow
during his tenure.

Mr. Hu endorsed making interest rates and the exchange rate of the
renminbi more dependent on markets and less on government fiat. The
People’s Bank of China, the central bank, has already begun doing this by
gradually broadening the range of interest rates that banks can charge
based on the credit worthiness of borrowers and by widening the daily
range in which the currency can trade against the dollar.

Another frequent complaint of foreign governments and foreign businesses,
China’s lax enforcement of copyrights and patents, drew at least an
acknowledgment from Mr. Hu, who promised greater protection of
intellectual property as a way to foster innovation in China.

There was one perhaps unintentional sign at the party congress that China
remains enthusiastic about foreign brands — at least if they are
manufactured in China.

A special parking lot for officials on the north side of the Great Hall of
the People, across the street from the walled residential compound where
the country’s leaders live, was full of German, American and Japanese
cars, with no sign of any Chinese models.

The lot held at least a dozen black Audi A8 sedans and several dark-blue
Buick GL8 minivans — both are assembled in China — and even a white Toyota
Highlander crossover utility vehicle. Sales of Japanese-brand models have
plummeted about 40 percent in each of the past two months compared with a
year ago after a territorial dispute between China and Japan in the East
China Sea led to rioting and the destruction of around 100 Japanese-brand
cars.