BEIJING LEADERS FOCUS ON POOR By Richard McGregor in Beijing
Thursday, October 25, 2007
In the run-up to this month's five-yearly Communist party congress, Wang Xiaolu, a Chinese economist, published a study that quadrupled the official estimate of locals living below the poverty line.
Mr Wang's figure of 80m is four times as high as the one presented by Hu Jintao, the president and party secretary, in his lengthy work report at the opening of the congress last week.
“I got some criticism that my figures could stir up anger, but [what] makes people angry are the facts,” said Mr Wang, of the China Reform Foundation.
But, for the most part, Mr Wang's report was accepted without rancour, a striking illustration of the consensus that has formed around Mr Hu's economic programme as he embarks on his second five-year term.
The new leadership team unveiled on Monday following the closure of the congress on Sunday offered Mr Hu fewer gains in personnel terms than had been expected.
Mr Hu managed to elevate only one firm ally – Li Keqiang, the party boss of industrial Liaoning province – into the leadership's inner circle.
After a period of five years in which he had appeared to be gradually tightening his grip on power, many had expected in the lead-up to the congress that Mr Hu would be able to put his personal stamp on the leadership group.
Even after his promotion, Mr Li is ranked below Xi Jinping, the Shanghai party chief with a revolutionary family background. As a result, Mr Xi is now favoured to succeed Mr Hu.
The kremlinology aside, however, Mr Hu, along with Wen Jiabao, the premier, have asserted control over policy and reset the template for the direction of the economy as well as environment, health and education spending.
Mr Hu and Mr Wen have constantly emphasised the need to tackle the gaping fissures that have opened up in Chinese society in the past decade or so, between rich and poor, the country and the city, and the coast and the hinterland.
In their first term, they had made a start on assembling the policy arsenal to make a dent in the issue, which at best has only marginally improved.
In contrast to Mr Wang's chronicle of rising poverty, the latest annual rich list, published just weeks before the congress by the Hurun group, in Shanghai, said China had 106 US$ billionaires, up from 15 last year and only 7 seven in 2005.
With the central government tax coffers flush, Mr Hu and Mr Wen may at last in their second term be able to push through substantial increases in health and education spending, the areas where the poorest people have been hit the hardest.
The main driver in Mr Wang's recalculation of the poverty line was the collapse in education and health spending in rural areas, something that he says the government is starting to address.
On another front, the government has yet to make clear who among the members of the newly appointed politburo will be handling day-to-day economic policymaking and financial diplomacy.
Wu Yi, who as one of China's four vice-premiers has handled the top-level dialogue with Washington and also operated as a troubleshooter on issues such as product safety, has reached retirement age, and was not reappointed to the politburo.
Her responsibilities, and policymaking for the financial sector, once under the late Huang Ju, have yet to be allocated and may not become entirely clear until the new government is formed early next year.
Wang Qishan, the mayor of Beijing, who was elevated into the politburo, has been tipped to take responsibility for the financial sector.
Mr Wang, a forceful official in the mould of his one-time mentor, Zhu Rongji, the former premier, is backed by the many officials and financiers who feel financial reforms have stagnated in recent years.
Li Keqiang, as most senior of the four vice-premiers, may also have some management of macroeconomic issues, where he would be working with Wen Jiabao.
Beijing has also yet to announce who will take over from Ms Wu the handling of the bilateral senior dialogue with Washington after the next scheduled meeting in December in the Chinese capital.
One candidate is Zhang Dejiang, the North Korea-educated Guangdong party boss, who has a reputation as a tough bureaucrat but little experience in dealing with the west.
Washington will be hoping that dialogue is taken over by Mr Li, which would both give them access to a top official and someone who is on a fast track to be at the top of the Chinese leadership for the next 10-15 years.
[用户系统信息]Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; (R1 1.3))
