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Chinese Communist Party’s Central Committee looks to 2012

By Barbara Demick
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REPORTING FROM BEIJING – Members of the Communist Party’s Central Committee, 365 of the most powerful people in China, wrapped up a four-day closed-door session Tuesday and announced the 18th National Party Congress would occur in the latter half of 2012.

In a communique, the Central Committee said the National Party Congress would take place ‘to unite and lead all the Chinese people in building a moderately prosperous society in an all-around way, as well as accelerating the nation’s modernization drive.’’

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The congress will be the most important transition of power in China in a decade. President Hu Jintao, who will have already served the limit of two five-year terms, is to be succeeded by Xi Jinping, the current vice president. If all goes according to plan, Xi will become secretary-general of the Communist Party next year and take over as president in 2013. Premier Wen Jiabao’s successor looks to be Vice Premier Li Keqiang.

‘Obviously, they were talking about personnel to decide on the next generation of leadership,’ said Jin Zhong, a political analyst based in Hong Kong. “But all the decisions are made internally. There is no transparency.’

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-- Barbara Demick

World Now
Barbara Demick

Barbara Demick is a former foreign correspondent for the Los Angeles Times who previously headed bureaus in Beijing and Seoul, as well as New York. She is the author of “Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea” and “Logavina Street: Life and Death in a Sarajevo Neighborhood.” Demick has won Britain’s Samuel Johnson Award for best nonfiction; the George Polk Award; the Robert F. Kennedy Award; the Osborn Elliott Prize for Journalism from the Asia Society; the Overseas Press Club’s Joe and Laurie Dine Award for human rights reporting; the American Academy of Diplomacy’s Arthur Ross Award; and Stanford University’s Shorenstein Award for best Asia reporting. She has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. She was a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

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