China’s President yesterday warned the Communist Party faces “collapse” if it fails to clean up corruption and called for an economic revamp as he opened a congress to inaugurate a new slate of leaders.
The week-long party congress will end with a transition of power to Vice-President Xi Jinping, who will govern for the coming decade amid growing pressure for reform of the communist regime’s iron-clad grip on power.
The party’s outgoing general-secretary, President Hu Jintao, delivered his starkest warning yet about fighting rampant corruption following a top-level murder and graft scandal involving former regional boss Bo Xilai.
“If we fail to handle this issue well, it could prove fatal to the party and even cause the collapse of the party and the fall of the state,” Hu told more than 2,200 delegates inside Beijing’s cavernous Great Hall of the People.
He also appeared to acknowledge growing pressure for reform by saying the party must change China’s “political structure and make the people’s democracy more extensive”.
At the congress, which is held every five years, Hu also positioned the world’s second-largest economy for a more assertive role as he insisted China should be a “maritime power” that “resolutely” protects its interests.
The comment prompted Tokyo to call on Beijing to use its growing power in a “peaceful manner based on international law”.
Heading into the 18th party congress, China has been skirmishing with Japan and other Asian neighbours over a slew of territorial disputes and flexing its growing military muscles, to the disquiet of the US.
Referring to corruption, but without naming Bo, the President added that the party “must make sure that all are equal before the law”.
There was more embarrassment in the lead-up to the congress with a New York Times report last month that said the family of Premier Wen Jiabao had amassed $2.7 billion in “hidden riches”.
And in June, business news agency Bloomberg published an investigation into the finances of Xi’s extended family, which it said totalled $376 million, although there was no indication of wrongdoing.
Leaders, Hu said, must exercise self-discipline and “supervision over their family and staff and they should never seek any privilege”.
Observers said that despite Hu’s frank admissions, prospects for substantive reform in a hidebound political system were remote.
“The language is surprisingly strong but in terms of us seeing new action, it is doubtful,” said analyst Willy Lam of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, noting that past proclamations had yielded little change.
“It is very difficult to solve corruption because it has become an endemic problem. Everyone is doing it, all the main (political) families,” he said. “So it is almost mission impossible.”
Hu’s call for political reform also contrasted with the treatment meted out to would-be protesters outside the Great Hall of the People on Tiananmen Square.