Here comes the new Chinese leadership

By Mobhare Matinyi, Washinton, DC

Hardly nine days after the world woke up to hear the news of the re-election of President Barack Obama of the United States of America, on the other side of the globe the emerging global power, the People’s Republic of China, was announcing its paramount leader, a relaxed-looking Xi Jinping, 59.

The current Vice President since 2008, Jinping was elected by the eighteenth Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) on Thursday, November 15, to become its new Secretary General, the top most CPC position. He subsequently became the Chairman of the CPC Central Military Commission (CMC), and the first member of the CPC Politburo Standing Committee, the nation’s de facto highest decision-making organ. He is also the President of the Central Party School since December 2007.

Chinese politics follow carefully planned choreography, of course, after behind-the-scenes squabbles, thus, the chemical engineer who holds another degree in Marxist theory and a doctorate degree in laws, all from the prestigious Tsinghua University, will automatically become the president of China in March 2013 upon being approved by the National People’s Congress (NPC). The NPC is the nation’s parliament, but it mostly functions through the 150-member Standing Committee. Jinping is expected to stay in power for two five-year terms until 2022/23.

The CPC congress which took ten days until November 16, elected a new politburo of around 2,300 delegates, which in turn had to vote in the seven-man team called the Politburo Standing Committee, which formerly had nine members. The Congress had to elect about 300 members of the CPC Central Committee as well.

Hence, Jinping replaces President Hu Jintao in party positions while Le Keqiang, 57, replaces Premier Wen Jiabao who is also retiring. Premier Keqiang will be the head of the State Council, the highest administrative body. Keqiang who studied law before completing a doctorate degree in economics from Peking University, was the Vice Premier and the Deputy Party Secretary of the State Council.

The two men will work together with other five new members of the CPC Politburo, apparently very experienced political leaders and highly educated individuals, each one of them overseeing a specific portfolio. One of them will be the Chairman of the National People’s Congress, Yu Zhengsheng, 67, a former military engineer trained in the design of automated missiles and electronic systems.

Another one will be Zhang Dejiang, 65, currently the Vice-Premier of the State Council. He is a North Korean-trained linguist and economist. Then Liu Yunshan, 65, a graduate of the Central Party School of the CPC Central Committee, who currently works as Executive Secretary of the Central Committee Secretariat and Director of the Propaganda Department of the Central Committee.

The current First Vice Premier and Secretary of the Central Commission for Disciplinary Inspection, Wang Qishan, 64, a graduate of history from Northwestern University in the US, will be another face on the politburo. He is a well-known trouble shooter with a plenty of experience and success in financial and economic matters. Finally, Zhang Gaoli, 66, the in-coming Executive Vice-Premier, an economist who graduated from Xiamen University. That then, is the Chinese dream team.

One interesting thing is that the average age of the seven-man team is 63.3 years while the median age is 65 years and the mode is 65 years as well. However, the youngest two are the president at 59 and vice president at 57. This age is relatively advanced compared to Western countries where hardly a 60-plus year old gets a chance to lead, with some few exceptions. Currently, the US leader is 51 years old, United Kingdom 46, Canada 53, France 54 and Germany 58, which, for these five countries averages at about 52.4 years. Could this tell us why China is rising fast while the West is falling down the cliff albeit at a snail’s pace?

But what is so unique about China is their party system, a system that changed China from one of the disappointing countries of the twentieth century to the world’s second largest economy with the prospect of becoming the largest economy in a few decades, and the largest military before the end of the century. The Chinese state party rules supreme in the real sense, and the government, parliament, judiciary, military, the public and frankly everything else succumbs to its power.

The Chinese have managed to perfect that system and there are no signs of change. It’s a pity that we Tanzanians wasted almost three decades trying to build the same kind of system but failed ending up adopting the Western model of democracy which now seems to be a big headache with the prospects of troubles ahead. I think the secret of the success of the Chinese system lies in their indigenous political culture unlike most African countries which have simply duplicated foreign political systems.