Beijing (CNN) -- China on Thursday unveiled the elite group of leaders who will set the agenda for the country for the next decade, the culmination of months of secretive bargaining and a carefully choreographed performance of political pomp.
The seven members of the
powerful committee that sits atop the Chinese system strode out onto a
stage in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. They were led by Xi Jinping, who takes over from Hu Jintao as head of the Communist Party, which has ruled China for more than 60 years.
Xi is joined on the new
Politburo Standing Committee, the party's top decision-making body, by
Li Keqiang, who is expected to replace Wen Jiabao as premier early next
year, and five other veteran party officials.
Although the committee's
lineup is new, analysts said it appeared to be predominantly
conservative and unlikely to bring about meaningful political changes in
the world's most populous nation and second largest economy.
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Xi also succeeded Hu as
head of China's powerful Central Military Commission, which oversees
major national security and military affairs. That makes for a cleaner
transition than in the past two power handovers, when the former party
chiefs held onto the key military role for years afterward, using it to
keep exercising considerable power and influence.
A far cry from the
relentless media campaigns and frequent public appearances of U.S.
presidential candidates, the efforts to determine who ended up in
China's most powerful posts have taken place behind closed doors, part
of a once-in-a-decade leadership transition.
The focal point of the
process has been the party's 18th National Congress that has unfolded
amid heavy security in Beijing over the past week.
Despite the spectacular
economic and social changes China has undergone in recent times, the
party has maintained a tight grip on power and upheld its obscure
methods for selecting its top leaders.
The consequences of the
leadership handover are significant for the nation's 1.3 billion
citizens, its neighbors in Asia and the United States, which is warily
watching China's economic and military rise.
Standing in front of a huge landscape painting on Thursday, Xi brought a touch of cordiality to the start of his speech
before a packed room of reporters, apologetically acknowledging that he
and his party colleagues had kept their audience waiting by appearing
later than scheduled.
But he quickly turned to serious matters, warning of the "many severe challenges" that the party faces.
He singled out
corruption, remoteness from the general public, as well as undue
emphasis on formalities and bureaucracy as particular concerns.
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The secrecy and
exclusivity of the procedure by which China's top leaders are selected,
involving maneuvering and deal-making among senior party figures, leaves
a lot of the country's citizens feeling detached from the process.
"Many ordinary people
don't feel so excited or joyful about what's happening," said Lijia
Zhang, a Beijing-based author. "People say, 'Oh, it's the party's
business, nothing to do with us -- and we do not have a say in selecting
the leader or the policy.' "
But Xi's speech had more
of a human touch than many of those delivered by Chinese officials, and
he addressed subjects close to the heart of many Chinese people and
others around the world.
"Our people have great
enthusiasm in life," he said. "They hope for better education, more
stable jobs, more satisfactory income, more reliable social security,
medical services with higher standards, more comfortable living
conditions and a more beautiful environment."
What kind of changes Xi,
59, and those joining him on the party's most powerful committee are
likely to usher in over the coming years remains shrouded in mystery.
"Xi Jinping is in many
ways an unknown commodity," said Mike Chinoy, a former CNN correspondent
and now a senior fellow at the University of Southern California's
U.S.-China Institute. "He's risen to the top of the Chinese system by
being very careful not to disclose what he really thinks."
The son of one of Mao
Zedong's top lieutenants, Xi is considered a "princeling" because of his
family's place in the Communist Party aristocracy. He is also believed
to be close to the Chinese military.
Married to a popular
folk singer for the People's Liberation Army, he has climbed through the
party hierarchy, at one point holding the top job in the eastern
metropolis of Shanghai. He is expected to inherit the title of president
from Hu, 69, early next year.
Some observers have
expressed hope that the next decade could bring a degree of political
reform as Chinese leaders seek to bolster their legitimacy, which has
been eroded by widespread corruption and the dramatic scandal this year
involving the former senior party official Bo Xilai.
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But many analysts are
skeptical about the willingness of leaders to adopt significant changes,
noting the concentration of power and money at the top of the party.
The new set of leaders appears set to uphold the status quo, according
to Willy Lam, a history professor at the Chinese University of Hong
Kong.
"By and large, we have a
conservative team," Lam said following the announcement of the new
Standing Committee. "We can expect no substantial or meaningful movement
toward political reform."
The new leaders are
likely to be "in favor of staying the course, maintaining political
stability and defusing challenges to the party's authority," he said.
The new Standing
Committee is more streamlined than its previous incarnation, dropping
for nine members to seven. The smaller committee may help bring about
greater unity and efficiency at the top of the party, some experts say.
Besides Xi and Li, the
members of the elite committee are Zhang Dejiang, Yu Zhengsheng, Liu
Yunshan, Wang Qishan and Zhang Gaoli.
The new lineup shows
that Jiang Zemin, the 86-year-old former party chief who preceded Hu,
still maintains heavy clout in the Communist hierarchy, said Cheng Li, director of research at the John L. Thornton Center at the Brookings Institution.
The composition of the
committee is "not a surprise but a disappointment," he said, adding that
it was dominated by people loyal to Jiang.
He said some Chinese
people would be disappointed about the decision not to include Liu
Yuanchao and Wang Yang, senior officials who he described as "strong
advocates for political reform."
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The next chance to
refresh the Standing Committee's membership will occur in five years,
when the Communist Party's next National Congress takes place.
For the time being, the
committee remains a men's club with no woman among its new members.
Since the Standing Committee's creation in 1949, no woman has ever held a
position on it.
Despite speculation that
Liu Yandong, the lone female member of the wider Politburo, might be
tapped for the elite group, she was not among the seven members who
marched across the stage Thursday.
Her age may have been a
disadvantage in her candidacy, according to the Hoover Institution,
which is based at Stanford University. Liu was born in 1945 and has been
a member of the Politburo since 2007.
Women lag in political
representation in China. Only 2.2% of working women were in charge of
the state offices, party organizations and other enterprises or
institutions, according to the Third Survey on Chinese Women's Social
Status, a national survey released last year.
The number of women on
the 25-member Politburo has increased, though, from one to two: Sun
Chunlan, the party secretary of Fujian province, joins Liu, who was
already a member.
The reaction from
China's neighbors to the unveiling of the new leadership reflected its
complicated relationships in the Asia-Pacific region.
Japan, which is locked
in a tense territorial dispute with China over a group of small islands
in the East China Sea, said it hoped "the mutually beneficial
relationship based on common strategic interest will be further
developed and enhanced with the new leadership."
Kim Jong Un, the young
leader of North Korea, sent a message congratulating Xi on his new
position, according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency.
Kim's message stressed
the long "friendship" between the two countries. China is the reclusive
North Korean regime's main ally, providing it with vital economic
support.
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