Hu, Wen step down, new Politburo election today
16 Nov 2012 5:23 AM IST
Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao bowed out of the top leadership of the ruling Communist Party of China on Wednesday after a 10-year stint in power, as the Party's key Congress wrapped up its meeting after electing a new set of younger leaders including Xi Jinping, widely tipped to take over as the new boss on Thursday.
Bidding farewell at the end of the week-long 18th Party Congress here on Wednesday, Hu, who is credited to have improved Sino-Indian relations in the last decade, said, ‘the Congress elected a new Central Committee of the Party and replaced older leaders with younger ones’.
The Congress which met at Beijing's cavernous Great Hall of the People concluded after electing over 300 members to the Central Committee, the main policy making body of the world's largest political party with 82.3 million members. Much on the expected lines, all top leaders including Xi, 59, Li Keqiang, 57, who is officially projected to succeed Wen as Premier as well as several senior leaders including the lone woman, Lu Yandong, 67 were elected to the new Central Committee.
The new Central Committee in turn would elect on Thursday a 25-member Politburo which will then choose the all-power Standing Committee, whose numbers were yet to be revealed. Hu and Wen would relinquish the party posts on Thursday but the two leaders would continue in office as Chinese President and Premier respectively, till March next year. Hu left a stamp of his own with the ruling Communist Party incorporating his theory of ‘Scientific Outlook’ in its constitution, figuring along theories of top leaders like Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping.
An amendment to the Constitution of the Communist Party of China (CPC) was approved on the last day of the leadership change Congress making the Scientific Outlook on Development as part of the Party’s guide for action.
Unanimously agreed on by 2270 delegates to the congress, the amendment juxtaposes the Scientific Outlook on Development along with Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory and the important thought of Three Represents credited to Hu’s predecessor Jiang Zemin.
Hailing the Outlook as ‘the crystallisation of the collective wisdom of the CPC and a long-term guiding ideology the Party must adhere to’, the resolution said it represents the Party’s latest achievement in adapting Marxism to China’s conditions.
Bidding farewell at the end of the week-long 18th Party Congress here on Wednesday, Hu, who is credited to have improved Sino-Indian relations in the last decade, said, ‘the Congress elected a new Central Committee of the Party and replaced older leaders with younger ones’.
The Congress which met at Beijing's cavernous Great Hall of the People concluded after electing over 300 members to the Central Committee, the main policy making body of the world's largest political party with 82.3 million members. Much on the expected lines, all top leaders including Xi, 59, Li Keqiang, 57, who is officially projected to succeed Wen as Premier as well as several senior leaders including the lone woman, Lu Yandong, 67 were elected to the new Central Committee.
The new Central Committee in turn would elect on Thursday a 25-member Politburo which will then choose the all-power Standing Committee, whose numbers were yet to be revealed. Hu and Wen would relinquish the party posts on Thursday but the two leaders would continue in office as Chinese President and Premier respectively, till March next year. Hu left a stamp of his own with the ruling Communist Party incorporating his theory of ‘Scientific Outlook’ in its constitution, figuring along theories of top leaders like Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping.
An amendment to the Constitution of the Communist Party of China (CPC) was approved on the last day of the leadership change Congress making the Scientific Outlook on Development as part of the Party’s guide for action.
Unanimously agreed on by 2270 delegates to the congress, the amendment juxtaposes the Scientific Outlook on Development along with Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory and the important thought of Three Represents credited to Hu’s predecessor Jiang Zemin.
Hailing the Outlook as ‘the crystallisation of the collective wisdom of the CPC and a long-term guiding ideology the Party must adhere to’, the resolution said it represents the Party’s latest achievement in adapting Marxism to China’s conditions.
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