Chinese Prez to Snub Left, Right in 2nd Term

Walks path of 'stability' as delegates pour into Beijing for debates
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 13, 2007 7:35 PM CDT
Chinese Prez to Snub Left, Right in 2nd Term
Staff members use computers at the press center for the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, in Beijing Wednesday Oct. 10, 2007. China's leading communists met Tuesday in final preparation for the five-yearly congress at which President Hu Jintao is expected to entrench his power...   (Associated Press)

Thousands of delegates are pouring into Beijing for this week's political debates, but the Washington Post says the debate is over: President Hu Jintao will keep walking a safe middle path in his next 5-year term. Once deemed a candidate to open China's one-party system, Hu has ignored calls for "self-revolution" as well as pleas to roll back market reforms.

Hu embodies a new breed of Chinese technocrat that replaced the big personas of Mao and Deng Xiaoping. Many labeled him a reformer because of an apparent openness to free media, only to watch him silence critics and tighten media control. “He obviously came to believe that in China stability is the most important commodity,” says his biographer.
(More China stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X