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Who will emerge as the top 300 men and women in the Chinese government over the next five years? To what extent will the Communist Party embrace political and economic reforms as it faces mounting challenges to its authority? And what early clues can be gleaned on the identity of China’s future leaders already earmarked for higher power in 2022?
These are some of the key questions that will be discussed by The University of Nottingham’s China Policy Institute (CPI) in a special blog series to mark the once-a-decade leadership transition at the 18th Party Congress, which opens in Beijing on November 8.
Professor Steve Tsang, Director of the CPI, said: “Our special blog series will evaluate evidence of power shifts within the Communist Party and assess the future implications for China’s political and economic wellbeing. A key issue of this transition is whether the new leadership can overcome the political rifts that have been laid bare in recent months and develop the cohesion and capacity to act together to tackle much more severe challenges set to emerge over the coming decade.
The last three months alone have seen the purging of rising heavyweight Bo Xilai, the arrest and life imprisonment of his wife Gu Kailai for the murder of a British businessman, the 15-year jail sentence handed out to the police chief under Bo’s mayoral supervision and the disappearance and delayed reappearance of the man expected to become China’s next President, Xi Jinping.
Expert comment and analysis
The CPI team includes internationally renowned academics, researchers, analysts, and commentators.
The blog run by the CPI, a think tank and research arm of The University of Nottingham’s School of Contemporary Chinese Studies, has featured expert comment and analysis of these dramatic events. Now, the CPI is keen for the world’s scholars, policy analysts, media and interested members of the public to join in the debates featured in its Congress series, which is now live on the CPI website.
Several versions of the “confirmed line-up” for the Politburo Standing Committee are still circulating and many questions remain unanswered. Will Wang Yang, the controversial Party Secretary of Guangdong, make it to the seven-member body? Will Wang Qishan, the capable economic reformer, be given a non-economic portfolio in order to allow new Premier Li Keqiang a free hand to manage the economy?
And will the Party do the previously unthinkable and purge its Constitution of Mao Zedong Thought in the latest round of revisions?
Latest news and developments
Journalists will be able to use the blog to access timely comment on the latest news and developments in the run up to and during the Congress.
http://blogs.nottingham.ac.uk/chinapolicyinstitute/category/politics/18th-party-congress-blog-series/
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