Party puts focus on a future of harmony

2007-10-23

THE nine top leaders of the Communist Party of China made a group debut in Beijing yesterday after their election at the first plenum of the 17th CPC Central Committee.

Hu Jintao was re-elected as Party chief for a second term.

New faces in the pinnacle Political Bureau Standing Committee of the CPC Central Committee are Xi Jinping, Li Keqing, He Guoqiang and Zhou Yongkang.

They joined the five remaining members of the previous standing committee, Hu, Wu Bangguo, Wen Jiabao, Jia Qinglin and Li Changchun.

Other newcomers in the 25-member political bureau are Wang Gang, Wang Qishan, Liu Yandong, Li Yuanchao, Wang Yang, Zhang Gaoli, Xu Caihou and Bo Xilai.

Driving time

Six of the new political bureau members and the CPC Central Committee Secretariat were born in the 1950s. They spent their formative years in a transformative China.

They outlived the severest natural disasters in modern China that lasted from 1959 to 1961, witnessed in their childhood the frenetic development drive of the Great Leap Forward (1958-1960), and grew up in the "cultural revolution" which threw the nation into a decade-long turmoil ending in 1976.

With bachelor's degrees or doctorates, they rose from the grassroots, acquainted themselves with the lives of the people and stood out with expertise in economics, business management and social sciences.

"With these people joining in, the central collective leadership of the Party has gained more vigor and vitality," said Professor Liu Chun, deputy dean of the Graduate Institute of the Party School of the CPC Central Committee.

Xi Jinping, 54, was trained as a chemical engineer at the prestigious Tsinghua University and much later got his doctorate in law by majoring in Marxist theory.

Earlier this year, Xi was appointed Party chief of Shanghai and has brought a breath of fresh air and new faces to the city after a corruption scandal felled his predecessor, Chen Liangyu.

A native of northern Shaanxi Province, Xi said he had spent "his most memorable time," about 17 years, in Fujian Province, a southeastern economic powerhouse that is just opposite Taiwan.

While steering the Fujian provincial government, Xi encouraged better public services for increasing trade between Fujian and Taiwan. "Ma-shang-jiu-ban," the Chinese for "go and handle it," is his trademark tag for efficiency.

After being promoted in November 2002 to the post of Party secretary of the CPC Zhejiang Provincial Committee, Xi mapped out a package of measures ranging from ecology to culture to foster harmonious development.

Li Keqiang, 52, the youngest among the newly elected, mounted the political ladder from the very bottom as Party secretary of a village-level production unit in the era of communes.

From the first-secretary of the Chinese Communist Youth League to the chief of China's major provinces of Henan and Liaoning, Li, the doctorate with the Economic Institute of Beijing University co-authored a treatise titled "On the Tri-Structure of China's Economy" and won the country's top economic award - the Sun Yefang Economic Prize.

Sources close to Li said that he cares about the sufferings of the public and is good at integrating Marxism and Western economic theories with China's economic reforms.

He Guoqiang, 63, an engineer-turned Party cadre, has established his name for playing hard ball in the corruption fight since taking over the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee in 2002.

He, a native of central Hunan Province, commanded the largest drive in the Party's history on Marxism education.

He also served as the governor of Fujian and Party secretary of Chongqing Municipality.

Bold reforms

Zhou Yongkang, 64, minister of public security and the first commissar of the Armed Police Force, was recognized for his bold and resolute reforms to streamline the police and eliminate corruption.

A native of eastern Jiangsu Province, Zhou has served as general manager of the China National Petroleum Corporation, minister of land and resources and Party secretary of Sichuan Province.

In the words of Li Lianyu, a delegate to the 17th CPC National Congress which closed on Sunday, the injection of new blood to the central leadership is crucial for the country to materialize the goals put forth by the Party.