Military out of China's new topmost leadership

The 15th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and the first plenum of the new central committee finally concluded in an unusual way. In his fourth dispatch on the congress and its aftermath, our Asia correspondent Harvey Stockwin reports on the new protocol order at the highest of China's leadership line- up.

HONG KONG (JP): Believe it or not, the 15th CCP congress and its aftermath ended with two top Chinese leaders taking an unprecedented step -- kissing babies.

Before that, at the end of the brief first plenum of the new central committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCPCC) Saturday, China's new topmost leadership did not increase in size, and contained no military representative.

The likely next prime minister, current first Vice-Premier Zhu Rongji, has moved up the protocol order of the Standing Committee of the CCP politburo (PSC) but, for now, President Jiang Zemin and Prime Minister Li Peng clearly dominate the new line-up.

True to form, after the first plenum had quickly done its presumably pre-arranged work, CCP Secretary-General Jiang led out the new PSC in protocol order for a brief appearance before the world's press and cameras. No questions were taken and Jiang was the only one to speak. (The last time a few questions were permitted was when then Secretary-General Zhao Ziyang first adopted this introduction of the PSC after the 13th Congress in 1887).

After introducing his colleagues, Jiang merely reiterated a string of favored cliches about how the CCP would conquer all difficulties by using Deng Xiaoping Theory as the key to inevitable progress. He then led away his new team, with the only unscripted words being, in English, "thank you for coming", addressed to the assembled reporters.

Needless to say, no explanations were offered for the purging of third-ranking leader Qiao Shi on the previous day.

Even though his words were predictable and trite, Jiang Zemin still read them from a prepared text. He always does this, which is why some China-watchers are still skeptical that Jiang has completely sewn up the leadership of China in the way currently being described to him, rather naively, by much of the world's press, in the wake of the 15th CCP Congress.

Frequently displaying a nervous disposition, Jiang does not yet display any spontaneous self-confident political flair such as one associated with strong political leadership -- and which was certainly a characteristic of Deng Xiaoping.

Second in the protocol order of the PSC is Prime Minister Li Peng, now seemingly assured of becoming chairman of the National Peoples Congress next year. Li Peng toured three of Hong Kong's major infrastructure projects Sunday, prior to hosting the annual World Bank and International Monetary Fund meeting in China's newly acquired Special Administrative Region.

At each of the three projects, Hong Kong's, and the world's microphones will await Li Peng. It will be interesting to see if his victory in the recent power struggle within the CCP gives him the confidence to say something into them.

Third in the line-up, taking Qiao Shi's former position, is Li Peng's likely replacement as prime minister next March -- Zhu Rongji. Zhu's current position is as first Vice-Premier with responsibility for overseeing the economy.

The fourth position is retained by the chairman of the Chinese Peoples Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) -- Li Ruihuan.

The fifth position is taken by Hu Jintao, who was previously seventh. Hu was reportedly charged with making sure that CCPCC members all voted in the way that was expected of them, so it must be assumed that he is close to Li and Jiang.

The sixth PSC position is taken by a man who has worked closely with Qiao Shi in his role as the head of the party's Central Commission for Disciplinary Inspection, the CCP body charged with combating corruption, -- newcomer Wei Jianxing.

The seventh PSC position was taken by another newcomer, the vice premier in charge of foreign economic relations -- Li Lanqing. It is widely anticipated that Li Lanqing will take over Zhu's current role as overall boss of the economy, when Zhu becomes prime minister.

It has been widely reported in the Hong Kong press that Jiang Zemin wanted the PSC increased to nine members, so as to include two more of his close associates. If so, he has been disappointed.

Missing from the new line-up was any general from the People's Liberation Army. It had been confidently predicted that Gen. Zhang Wannian would be promoted to the PSC. In the end, Gen. Zhang only made it to the politburo, along with Defense Minister Gen. Chi Haotian. This is the first time in a long while that the PLA has not supplied at least one member of the PSC.

This fact suggests that Jiang is confident enough in his leading role as the chairman of the party's Central Military Commission (CMC) that he can edge the PLA generals away from the center of ultimate power in China. Jiang remains the Chairman of the CMC with Generals Chi and Zhang as the two vice-chairmen.

The stilted appearance of the PSC before the press and cameras would be all we would have to go on were it not for television. The real end of the congress for this reporter was when, in true democratic style, Li Peng and Li Ruihuan were seen all over China kissing babies on the post-congress nightly television news.

Li Peng did it rather gingerly and with careful regard for his dignity. Li Ruihuan -- a former Mayor of Tianjin -- was slightly less reserved and more effusive. The first half of the main Chinese television bulletin at 7 p.m. Friday had reported the formality of the plenum voting and the equal formality of the introduction of the PSC to the press.

The innovation came in the second half of the bulletin when Jiang, Li Peng, Zhu Rongji and Li Ruihuan were separately shown in lengthy montages of them "meeting the people" all over China.

Meeting the people is not something for which CCP leaders are renowned but an outsider would never have known that from the slick array of short clips, all strung together to give an artificial populist air to what had been an extremely elitist congress.

One imagined that the coverage had been edited by a Chinese who had studied television techniques in New York, Hollywood or Atlanta. It was all very professionally done. One can only hope it was a signal, however weak, that someone in the CCP hierarchy recognizes the importance of the party becoming closer to the people.