The Chinese Communist Party's National Congress in Beijing is for most people across the globe a most mysterious occurrence. It is an event that comes to pass with monotonous regularity every decade and that avers to uphold a political meritocracy that claims to be the prerequisite community identifier, advancing the interests of the Chinese people in spite of being a peculiar exercise in obscurantism. China has no qualms about rejecting a political system that represents a modicum of electoral democracy. The ruling party's principal function is to provide candidates for executive office, and not for the Chinese people to exercise their political whims. Politics and increasingly personal enrichment came to play an exaggerated part in filling the individual political vacuum even as Chinese politicians do not lack loyalty to the system. Multiple shades of ideological and political opinion categorically do not exist in the People Republic of China, the world's most weighty, puissant and consequential Communist nation. Paradoxically, the Chinese Communists remain reticent that their brand of authoritarianism and totalitarianism is key to the country's economic transformation. Market capitalism, ironically, is the most sublime expression of Communism, sufficient advantage to attract partisan loyalty of the party faithful. The Chinese government controls the commanding heights of the economy. The Chinese Communist Party dictates momentous decisions — political, social and economic — and in China there is no room for a considerable degree of diversity. Explicitly Communist, China's ruling party is as monolithic as its name might suggest. The two leadership cliques in the two most influential nations are worlds apart. Both political establishments produce a great deal of parallel cases for why their system is feasible and beneficial. Is it possible for the world, the developing countries in Africa in particular and the countries of the Arab Spring to draw real political benefits from the respective political processes of Washington and Beijing? International attention was focussed on the $6 billion democratic electoral process in the world's wealthiest and most powerful nation, the United States of America that secured a second term in the Oval Office for incumbent US President Barack Obama. Democracy and multi-party pluralism, American-style, is marketed as an intellectually compelling political notion and the ideal system of running a modern nation. The Chinese beg to differ. Their political system, they assert, acquired a force beyond intellectual persuasion over the past three decades. And, everyone knows that the change of leadership in China is a far more austere affair. Few anywhere in the world have heard of China's leader-in-waiting, the venerable and unassuming Xi Jinping. The world's most populous nation and the second largest economy after the United States, the People's Republic of China, for all its quirks — including the tragic Tiennanmen — faces no political uncertainties. It is tempting to interpret the proceedings at Chinese Communist Party's 18th National Congress in Beijing as a clash of ambitions between pragmatists and conservatives, the old guard versus the new generation “princelings” — the sons and daughters of the now deceased founders of the party. And, there is an element of truth in such a reading. “We should steadily enhance the vitality of the state-owned sector of the economy and its capacity to leverage and influence the economy,” unequivocally stated the outgoing head of the Chinese Communist Party Hu Jintao. “We must uphold the leadership of the party,” he extrapolated. Yet there was much that was vague and contradictory in his tone. “We must not take the old path that is closed and rigid, nor must we take the evil road of changing flags and banners,” he expounded. Hu Jintao had an eye on the future — not his own personal political future, but the future of presumably his children and grandchildren. “We should launch a revolution in energy production and consumption, impose a ceiling on total energy consumption, save energy and reduce its consumption,” he extrapolated further. Surely, red has metamorphosed into green. The world's most powerful Communist country gathers momentum. The change of direction in key ideological concepts did not go unnoticed by the international media at the National Congress. Two things had become starkly clear. Culture and corruption, and the correlation between the two, dominated the deliberations at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing this week. These priorities revealed themselves in the speeches of Hu Jintao and Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao as well as Xi Jinping. “Culture is the lifeblood of the nation,” Hu Jintao proudly proclaimed. “The strength and international competitiveness of Chinese culture are an important indication of China's power and prosperity and the renewal of the Chinese nation,” he painstakingly elucidated. The Chinese leadership obviously intends to use culture as a leverage in the cause of development. China produced 558 feature films in 2011 and set up 600,000 rural reading rooms. China has an estimated 2,115 museums that do not charge admission fares. And, 370,000 books were published last year. Corruption, however, continues to be the Communist Party's paramount headache. “It could prove fatal to the party and even cause the collapse of the party and the fall of the state,” warned Hu Jintao. “We must continue to make both active and prudent efforts to carry out the reform of political structure and make people's democracy more extensive, fuller in scope and sounder in practice,” he underpinned. Hu stressed that the party must “promote social harmony” and “improve people's lives”. The changing of the guard will by all indications follow suit. Xi Jinping is not Barack Obama. It will take years for people outside China to memorise his name. Obama is not a cynic when it comes to democracy. Xi Jinping, too, is convinced that at least in the economic sphere Communism is freer than Capitalism and pluralistic democracy. He and the Communist Party elite have their own understanding of what Communism is about and how it relates to social relations. The principle elements of Chinese Communism are about human dignity, social justice and equality. Nevertheless, income differentiation is fast becoming the bane of contemporary China. The Chinese under Communist rule would not have their full complement of political rights. The Chinese Communist ideology, strangely enough like its American counterpart, is nationalist and secular. Moral issues, however, differentiate the two. In recent years, China's leaders did their utmost to keep the link between market capitalism and Communism, or social justice as vague as they could. Although political activity in Communist China is relatively restricted when compared to America or Europe in scope and scale, there are issues to discuss and an increasing army of educated Chinese willing to discuss them in the open. Standard grievances are slackening economic growth, growing income differentials, the lack of freedom of expression and political association, and corruption. “Mao Zedong Thought” continues to be the guiding principle, in theory, and something of a humdrum mantra. “Deng Xiaoping's Theory” counts now more than ever. US President Obama was severely critical of Mitt Romney's business interests in China. Obama stressed in public speeches and televised campaign debates that 582,000 jobs were lost in the American manufacturing industry, presumably because of Chinese competition and “cheating”. America's economy faltered, while China's manufacturing industry on the other hand grew by 25 per cent during that period. The rising popularity of social networking in China posed problems for its ruling party. The new developments challenged “Mao Zedong philosophy”. Marxism-Leninism survives, but just barely. Disgraced party bigwig Bo Xilai, one of the “princelings” is a case in point. He initiated a crackdown of organised crime, arresting top level officials and police officers. Bo Xilai's “Chongqing model” revival of Mao era was regarded as exemplary. Reminiscent of the “Cultural Revolution” excesses, Bo Xilai encouraged mass public support for the Communist Party — “Red songs” and all. But, the claptrap no longer washes in contemporary China. Bo Xilai's son's lavish at Oxford and Harvard universities raised eyebrows and infuriated scores of party stalwarts. Yet Xi Jinping's status in the Communist Party inner circles rose steadily through the past two decades. The carefully crafted succession is no easy business. Handing over power to a new generation of leaders is fraught with pitfalls. Bo Xilai became China's biggest sensation, a scandal worthy of the decadent West. Neil Heyward, a British business consultant allegedly murdered on the instigation of Bo Xilai's wife, unleashed an unprecedented wave of indignation. Bo Xilai was expelled from the Communist Party and stripped of his position of Communist Party chief in Chongqing. He lost immunity from prosecution. The Chongqing police chief sought refuge in the US consulate, but the Americans declined to come to the rescue. The cascade of revelations that ultimately led to the expulsion of Bo Xilai from the Communist Party hit the headlines in China and abroad. The incident might have marred proceedings somewhat and received more than its fair share in the international media. “Culture is the lifeblood of the nation,” as Hu Jintao proclaimed. And, a culture of anti-corruption made up the political practice of China's Communist Party's 18th National Congress in Beijing. All the rest is noise.
