Hu emerges stronger as China unveils new team of leaders

BEIJING—China on Monday unveiled a new leadership team that gave President Hu Jintao a stronger hand in governing the country and put forward potential successors to take over power from him in 2012. Hu, 64, was given a second term as head of the ruling Communist Party and the nation’s armed forces, following more than a week of closed-door meetings in Beijing during which he worked to consolidate his grip on power.
As the nation’s nine new leaders were presented to the press at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People, Hu said he was determined to push ahead with the nation’s historic modernisation drive — but not to do so at any cost. “We will be firmly committed to development, which is the country’s top priority in governing and rejuvenating the country,” Hu said. “We will strive for scientific development by putting people first and making it comprehensive, balanced and sustainable.”
Following his re-appointments as head of the party and military, Hu is widely expected to receive a second term as state president when parliament holds its next annual session in March. Four new younger leaders were also promoted on Monday to work alongside Hu and Premier Wen Jiabao, 65, in the party’s nine-member Politburo Standing Committee, which is the country’s ultimate decision-making body. The new committee and the 25-member Politburo underneath it that was also announced Monday contained more Hu allies than in previous versions, which had similarly been stacked by former president Jiang Zemin before he stood down.
Hu Jintao, elected for another five years as General Secretary of the Communist Party of China’s (CPC) Central Committee, led a new line-up of CPC top leaders to meet the press at the Great Hall of the People Monday morning. The new line-up of the Political Bureau’s Standing Committee of the CPC Central Committee, closely watched by the world, consists of nine persons. They are: Hu Jintao, Wu Bangguo, Wen Jiabao, Jia Qinglin, Li Changchun, Xi Jinping, Li Keqiang, He Guoqiang and Zhou Yongkang.
A new CPC Central Committee was elected Sunday morning at the closing session of the 17th CPC National Congress. Hu said the 17th CPC National Congress, which closed Sunday, was “a resounding success.” “During the congress,” he said, “we held high our banner and carried forward our cause in a truth-seeking and pragmatic manner.”
“As a congress of unity, victory and progress, it is of vital importance to the whole Party and the people of all ethnic groups in the country in achieving unity in thinking, determining the direction, and boosting their morale to work together for new victories in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects and opening up new prospects for the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics,” Hu said.
Hu said the CPC Central Committee just held its first plenary session and elected the new central leading organs. The Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee comprises nine members. “The plenary session elected me as general secretary of the CPC Central Committee,” Hu said, introducing his eight colleagues to the press.
Hu particularly briefed on the four newcomers to the Standing Committee. “Xi Jinping, 54, and Li Keqiang, 52, are two comrades who are relatively younger,” Hu said, adding the press has been acquainted with He Guoqiang and Zhou Yongkang, who were members of the 16th CPC Central Committee Political Bureau.
“On behalf of the members of the newly elected central leading organs,” Hu said, “I would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to all other Party members for their trust in us. We are keenly aware of our difficult tasks and grave responsibilities.” “We will rely firmly on all other Party members and the people of all ethnic groups, and earnestly accomplish the tasks set at the 17th Congress, and we will do our best to be worthy of the great trust the entire membership have placed in us and to live up to the expectations of the people of all ethnic groups,” Hu said. “We will always hold high the great banner of socialism with Chinese characteristics, follow the guidance of Deng Xiaoping Theory and the important thought of Three Represents, thoroughly apply the Scientific Outlook on Development, and strive to open up a broader vista for developing socialism with Chinese characteristics,” Hu said.
“We will be firmly committed to development, which is the Party ‘s top priority in governing and rejuvenating the country, concentrate on construction and development, make all-round progress in developing the socialist market economy, socialist democracy, an advanced socialist culture and a harmonious socialist society, and strive for scientific development by putting people first and making it comprehensive, balanced and sustainable,” he said.
Hu said, “We will press ahead with reform and opening up, and put in place systems and mechanisms that are full of vigor, highly efficient, more open and conducive to scientific development, so as to provide a powerful driving force and an institutional guarantee for developing socialism with Chinese characteristics.”
“We will firmly uphold the purpose of serving the people wholeheartedly, persist in building the Party for public interests and exercising governance for the people, spare no effort to solve the most specific problems of the utmost and immediate concern to the people, sincerely do practical work for their benefits, and strive to promote social equity and justice,” He said.
He said, “We will conscientiously adhere to scientific, democratic and law-based governance, never fail to uphold integrity and work selflessly for public interests, continue to improve our art of leadership and governance capability, and strive to preserve and develop the Party’s vanguard nature to ensure that it is always in the forefront of the times.”
“We will pursue an independent foreign policy of peace and unswervingly follow the path of peaceful development and a win-win strategy of opening up. We will develop friendship and cooperation with all other countries on the basis of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence and push for the building of a harmonious world of lasting peace and common prosperity,” he said.—Xinhua