Teaching Comparative

A glitch in the succession?

The presumed future supreme leader has not been seen for a couple weeks in China. Rumors abound about a power struggle, an accident, or a heart attack. Will the system be able to adjust when the carefully constructed political deals were almost complete?

Off-Script Scramble for Power in a Chinese Leader’s Absence

With still no sign of China’s designated new leader, Xi Jinping, who has not been seen in public since Sept. 1, many insiders and well-connected analysts say the Chinese political ship is adrift, with factions jockeying to shape an impending Communist Party conclave…

Xi Jinping

By Thursday, a number of ranking party members with years of experience following Chinese politics were generally in agreement that Mr. Xi, 59, had suffered either a mild heart attack or a stroke, forcing him to cancel his appointments…

Planned years in advance, the 18th Party Congress is slated to be the most sweeping government reorganization in a decade, with scores of leaders scheduled to retire. It was still expected to take place next month or soon after in Beijing, where Mr. Xi was to take over as leader from Hu Jintao. The Communist Party has numerous factions, but the overall framework of the transfer was thought to have been mostly ironed out over the past year.

But recent developments, including Mr. Xi’s mysterious cancellation of several public appearances, suggest that may not be the case.

The most obvious sign of discord is that the dates for the congress have not been set. Most political experts here expected it to be held in mid-October, but without an official announcement, some are predicting it will be delayed…

One reason for the delay, the experts say, is what now appears to have been a contentious meeting in early August at the seaside resort of Beidaihe, China… “The atmosphere was very bad, and the struggles were very intense,” said a political analyst with connections to the party’s nerve center, the General Office…

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Labels: China, leadership, politics, rule-of-law

posted by Ken Wedding @ 7:48 AM