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Jiang, 5 top Chinese leaders step down

Paving the way for the younger generation to take up the reins of the Communist Party of China, President Jiang Zemin and five other top leaders stepped down, leaving Vice-President Hu Jintao as the only politburo member to be re-elected to its 300-plus central committee in Beijing on Thursday.

Hu, 59, the first top leader of China whose party career began after the Communists took over in 1949, is widely expected to take over from Jiang as party chief when the central committee meets on Friday. He will also take over as president of the world's most populous nation and Asia's fastest growing economy in March.

The party's landmark 16th congress, attended by 2,100 delegates, also unanimously approved in its closing session Jiang's proposal to open membership to formerly reviled capitalist entrepreneurs.

"The congress is a complete success. It is a congress of unity, a congress of victory, and a congress of progress," Jiang said while being flanked by the top Chinese leadership at the Great Hall of the People. "The 356-member central committee for the new term has been elected at the congress, thus ensuring the smooth succession of the new collective of the central leadership of the party to the previous one."

Jiang, 76, also ensured the retirement of the old generation of China's leaders from the seven-member politburo, except for Hu. Jiang and "five of his colleagues in the party's top decision-making body are not on a new central committee of the CPC elected here this morning", the official Xinhua news agency said.

Jiang's five colleagues who also stepped down are: Premier Zhu Rongji, parliament head Li Peng, both 74, Li Ruihuan (68), chairman of the Chinese people's political consultative conference, Wei Jianxing (71), head of the central commission for discipline inspection, and Li Lanqing (70), vice-premier.

The new CPC central committee is composed of 198 full members and 158 alternate members. Some 180 of the 356 members and alternate members are new faces.

Hu was picked a decade ago by the late 'paramount leader' Deng Xiaoping to become Jiang's successor. He is set to become general secretary of the CPC, the world's largest political party, which boasts of a membership of 66 million.

While Hu is expected to be the only candidate for the top party post, Hong Kong media reports said Jiang's close aide, Zeng Qinghong, 63, is also vying for the coveted party title.

Hu, who has served key posts in some of China's poorest and most remote provinces, had demonstrated toughness in dealing with the Tibetan independence movement. Many Tibetans believe he had a hand in the unexpected death of the Panchen Lama, their second highest spiritual leader.

The 16th party congress also passed a landmark amendment to the constitution of the CPC to enshrine Jiang's thought of 'Three Represents' along with the theories of Karl Marx, Mao Zedong, and Deng Xiaoping.

Jiang's theory, which has been described as a breakthrough, calls for the inclusion of China's business class and capitalists in the party that has for long been regarded as the vanguard of workers and peasants.

The congress also elected a new central commission for discipline inspection composed of 121 members to oversee the anti-corruption drive in the country.

Besides, it unanimously approved the 68-page political report presented by Jiang on November 8 and lauded the role of the president and his team in leading China to prosperity.

As is customary, a new CPC central committee will hold its first plenary session on the day following the conclusion of the party congress.

The plenum will elect the CPC central committee general secretary, members of its political bureau, and members of its politburo standing committee for a new term.

In the last 13 years, the third-generation leadership of the CPC with Jiang at the core, which led China, has made universally acknowledged achievements in reform, economic and social development, maintenance of stability, foreign affairs, national defence, and administration of the party, state, and armed forces.

Quoting observers, Xinhua said the smooth generational change of the CPC leadership marks the maturing of the biggest ruling party in the world with a history of 81 years and demonstrates the advancement of political life in China.

"It is bound to have a positive, far-reaching significance for China's long-term prosperity and stability," the state-run news agency added.

PTI

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