MCLC: Xi's first speech

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: Xi's first speech
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Video and English text of the speech can be viewed/read at:

http://www.scmp.com/news/18th-party-congress/article/1083153/transcript-xi-
jinpings-speech-unveiling-new-chinese

Kirk 

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Source: NYT (11/15/12):
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/16/world/asia/new-chinese-leader-offers-few-
hints-of-a-shift-in-direction.html

A Promise to Tackle China’s Problems, but Few Hints of a Shift in Path
By IAN JOHNSON

BEIJING — China’s new leader, Xi Jinping, impressed many people with a
plain-spoken promise to address problems in the country’s ruling party on
Thursday, but his new leadership team offered few clues as to a clear
shift in direction.

Mr. Xi, who formally took over from Hu Jintao as general secretary of the
Communist Party on Thursday, was presented to foreign and domestic
reporters after a highly scripted party congress intended mainly to laud
the work of Mr. Hu and set very broad priorities for Mr. Xi’s tenure.

According to tradition, Mr. Xi appeared onstage the day after the congress
ended with other members of the party’s Politburo Standing Committee, the
seven-member body that effectively runs China.

Mr. Xi then gave a speech on live television that avoided most of the
slogans that characterized Mr. Hu’s recent addresses. In fact, he did not
mention Mr. Hu or any of his predecessors, instead calling on the party to
fight corruption and promising to continue China’s “rejuvenation.”

“Inside the party, there are many problems that need be addressed,
especially the problems among party members and officials of corruption
and taking bribes, being out of touch with the people, undue emphasis on
formalities and bureaucracy and other issues,” Mr. Xi said.

He also pledged to improve citizens’ lives, including offering “better
schooling, more stable jobs, more satisfying incomes, more reliable social
security, higher levels of health care, more comfortable housing
conditions and a more beautiful environment,” so they can “look forward to
their children growing up in better circumstances, finding better work and
living in better conditions.”

“People’s striving for a better life is the goal we are struggling for,”
he added.

Reflecting his upbringing as the son of a high-ranking official in
Beijing, Mr. Xi spoke in clear Mandarin Chinese, making him one of the
first modern Chinese leaders whose speech does not bear the heavy accents
of an upbringing in one of China’s provinces.

Mr. Xi takes office with more titular authority than any Chinese leader in
history. He will now be the chief of the ruling Communist Party and will
take over sooner than expected from Mr. Hu as the chairman of the Central
Military Commission, the top overseer of China’s armed forces. Next
spring, he will assume the position of state president. Other leaders in
the post-Mao era have had more staggered transitions into the top posts.

Even so, Mr. Xi will have to contend with numerous other well-connected
princelings, or sons and daughters of influential past leaders, and a
factionalized Communist Party that tends to operate by consensus rather
than strongman rule. He is unlikely to have the sweeping authority of Mao
Zedong or Deng Xiaoping.

Although Mr. Xi’s appointment has been expected since 2007, when he was
essentially named Mr. Hu’s successor, it was the first chance for the
Chinese to see him in action. Li Zhong, a retired county leader in Hebei
Province who served there at the same time as Mr. Xi in the early 1980s,
noted that Mr. Xi had not repeated many of Mr. Hu’s slogans.

“Instead, he stressed the party’s responsibilities to the masses and the
heroism of the people, as well as the need to root out corruption in the
party,” Mr. Li said. “He was very frank and showed his consideration for
the people.”

His speech was also widely discussed on China’s social media sites, which
largely reflect an educated urban population.

He Bing of the China University of Political Science and Law in Beijing
wrote on the Weibo microblog, “He speaks with a human touch.”

Others were more critical.

“I read Xi’s speech,” Jian Heng, a guest professor at Shantou University
in Guangdong Province, wrote on Weibo. “He mentioned the word ‘party’ 20
times; ‘people’ appeared 19 times; ‘responsibility’ was said 10 times and
‘problems’ 3 times. Didn’t use anything related to law. No ‘law,’ no
‘constitution,’ no ‘rule of law’ nor ‘democracy,’ no ‘freedom.’ ”

No one can know for sure whether Mr. Xi favors fundamental political
changes of that kind — he has given no clear indication that he does. What
is clear is that his fellow members of the Standing Committee are longtime
party veterans whose track records provide no evidence of a strong impulse
to change the way China is governed, and whose ages mean they will
probably have relatively short careers in the country’s top ruling body.

Mr. Xi is 59 and his No. 2, Li Keqiang, who is expected to take control of
the bureaucratic apparatus of government as prime minister next spring, is
57. But the other five members are all in their mid-60s. Under the party’s
internal rules, that means they are all likely to retire at the next party
congress in five years. Given the intensely consuming task of negotiating
top leadership slots among competing factions, finding suitable
replacements for these five could take up much of Mr. Xi’s time and
political capital.

The other members of the Standing Committee are Zhang Dejiang, 65; Liu
Yunshan, 65; Wang Qishan, 64; Yu Zhengsheng, 67; and Zhang Gaoli, 65.

“This is quite a mediocre lineup, and we’ll have to wait and see what they
do,” said Pu Zhiqiang, a Beijing-based lawyer who often handles human
rights cases. “The way of Chinese politics means that their past
performances don’t show what they’ll do in the future.”

Another problem is that the leadership reflects the strong hand of Mr.
Hu’s predecessor, Jiang Zemin. Although Mr. Jiang, 86, retired a decade
ago, he has close ties with at least four of the seven members. That means
he was able to override Mr. Hu and place his people in top slots even
though he has no formal position in the party.

“The bad news from looking at the political system is that it really seems
to have thrown a wrench in our understanding of institutionalization,”
said Joseph Fewsmith, a professor at Boston University who specializes in
Chinese politics. “This whole institutional idea that people retire and
then don’t play much of a role seems to have been pretty well demolished.”

Mr. Xi did keep one tradition, however. Like Mr. Hu, who gave almost no
interviews to foreign reporters during his 10 years in office, Mr. Xi left
without taking any questions from the scores of waiting journalists.

Jonathan Ansfield contributed reporting. Shi Da contributed research.