The change in Chinese leadership has finally come. Hu Jintao has served his term as the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and hence as the country’s leaders after being in office for ten years. As expected, he has now relinquished his posts as the head of the party and military in the once-in-a-decade leadership change that is enshrined in the Chinese state, paving the way for Xi Jinping, who was anointed as his successor five years ago. Power is a bureaucratic word in China and is tightly controlled by the Party, which neither tolerates nor backs individuals or personas. In keeping with that the changeover was not to bring in any surprise, nor was there any immediate hope of a change in the governing logic of the Chinese Communist Party. The changeover is largely an institutional change, not a political one. China is not that kind of a political system in which leaders are born out of a certain need, or issue, or period of crisis, or even a political vacuum. In China, leaders are anointed, trained, toned and then sent in for a period in public office. Xi Jinping is no exception.
However, the world expects a lot from this leader, who at one point was considered to be leading a younger pack of Communist leaders who are in sync with realities outside China and would like to go for reforms - political, social and economic - that will make China more accessible and less of a mystery in world politics. However it is unlikely that Xi would bring in far reaching changes in the Chinese system immediately. He is ‘cabined and cribbed’, as Macbeth would say, by a complex network of party functionaries, apparatchiks, an ageing and orthodox politburo and a section of rival leaders who are extremely cagey about doing anything about the older systems China still manages to follow well into the 21st century.
However the challenges for China are only growing bigger, from social and ecological to its rather complex political relations with its Asian neighbours, India, Pakistan, Myanmar and especially Japan. Internally the party is still at large about dissidents, internet freedom and freedom of the arts and letters, a constant matter of debate inside and outside China. Xi would be expected to lead China into the new phase, keeping in mind its increasingly unrivalled global stature as an economic powerhouse largely unscathed by global recession as well its threat of being a power too big to not seriously consider a changeover to democracy. However it is unlikely that he will do anything much to endanger either of the two.
However, the world expects a lot from this leader, who at one point was considered to be leading a younger pack of Communist leaders who are in sync with realities outside China and would like to go for reforms - political, social and economic - that will make China more accessible and less of a mystery in world politics. However it is unlikely that Xi would bring in far reaching changes in the Chinese system immediately. He is ‘cabined and cribbed’, as Macbeth would say, by a complex network of party functionaries, apparatchiks, an ageing and orthodox politburo and a section of rival leaders who are extremely cagey about doing anything about the older systems China still manages to follow well into the 21st century.
However the challenges for China are only growing bigger, from social and ecological to its rather complex political relations with its Asian neighbours, India, Pakistan, Myanmar and especially Japan. Internally the party is still at large about dissidents, internet freedom and freedom of the arts and letters, a constant matter of debate inside and outside China. Xi would be expected to lead China into the new phase, keeping in mind its increasingly unrivalled global stature as an economic powerhouse largely unscathed by global recession as well its threat of being a power too big to not seriously consider a changeover to democracy. However it is unlikely that he will do anything much to endanger either of the two.