400 milioni di cinesi rurali e poveri

Tre fazioni nel partito comunista cinese. Hu Jintao ha aperto oggi mettendo in guardia dalla corruzione.

Molto divertente.

Come lo fu moltissimi anni fa il manifesto dei situazionisti italiani che riuscirono a incapsulare a corpo sei in un manifesto 140-100 tutti i nomi del comitato centrale cinese. Quel manifesto era un vero rebus per i passanti, con un migliaio o giù di lì di nomi cinesi. E a quel tempo, primi anni ’70, i cinesi in carne ed ossa in Italia erano assolutamente pochi. E oggi? Dove va la Cina? Cerca di capirlo anche il corrispondente giapponese di Kyodo News. Ecco il suo take di oggi 8 novembre, l’accento è messo (oltre che sulle isolette contese) sui circa 400 milioni di cinesi rurali (il doppio della popolazione Usa) che devono diventare un po’ meno poveri…

Chinese President Hu Jintao on Thursday set a new target for the country’s economic growth, vowing to double the country’s gross domestic product and per capita income for its people by 2020 from 2010 levels.

Speaking at the opening of a Communist Partycongress, Hu voiced determination to “safeguard China’s sovereignty, security and territorial integrity,” in an apparent criticism for Japan’s control of the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea claimed by Beijing.

The 18th National Congress, which is held every five years and will run through next Wednesday, will usher in a once-in-a-decade leadership change in which Hu will hand the post of party general secretary to Vice President Xi Jinping.

The congress comes as China, which overtook Japan as the world’s second-largest economy in 2010, is likely to mark a shift from an investment-led economy to a consumption-driven one propelled by higher disposable income and increased urbanization in the coming decade under Xi’s leadership.

“On the basis of making China’s development much more balanced, coordinated and sustainable, we should double its 2010 GDP and per capita income for both urban and rural residents (by 2020),” Hu said in a report delivered before about 2,300 delegates from across the country at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

The event also comes at a time when China’s growing assertiveness has caused friction with neighboring countries over issues such as its claim to the Senkaku Islands and territorial disputes with Vietnam and the Philippines in the South China Sea.

China has stepped up its rhetoric against Japan since the Japanese government purchased three of the five main islands in the Senkaku group from their Japanese owner in September, a move that escalated tensions between the two countries and sparked a series of anti-Japan demonstrations in China the same month.

“Our endeavors to strengthen national defense aim to safeguard China’s sovereignty, security and territorial integrity and ensure its peaceful development,” Hu said. “We should…resolutely safeguard China’s maritime rights and interests, and build China into a maritime power.”

Beijing has accused Tokyo of “stealing” the islands from it. China claims the islands, which it calls Diaoyu, have been an inherent part of its territory since ancient times, while Japan maintains they are an integral part of Japanese territory and that there are no territorial disputes between the two countries.

Hu vowed to “firmly maintain the strategic focus of boosting domestic demand” as a way of increasing consumer demand and expanding the domestic market.

The president called for increased efforts to fight corruption, saying, “If we fail to handle this issue well, it could prove fatal to the party, and even cause the collapse of the party and the fall of the state.”

Referring to a change in development patterns, Chi Fulin, president of the China Institute for Reform and Development, said about 400 million Chinese rural workers are expected to become city dwellers in the coming 10 years and the movement will create considerable consumption demand.

“Consumption demand unleashed by increased urbanization is expected to guarantee that China’s economy keeps a growth rate ranging from 7 to 8 percent in the coming decade,” Chi was quoted as saying in the Wednesday edition of the China Daily.

Chi said China’s residential consumption demand, which was 16 trillion yuan, or $2.56 trillion, in 2011, is expected to expand to about 30 trillion yuan in 2016 and up to 50 trillion yuan by 2022.

Zhao Chenggen, a professor at the School of Management at Peking University, stressed the need for the party and the government to increase interactions with the public to improve social management in the coming years.

“A very effective way to resolve issues such as corruption, environmental degradation and food safety, which directly correlate to people’s interests, is to increase public involvement in the decision-making process,” Zhao was quoted as saying Wednesday by Xinhua News Agency.

“After the 18th National Congress, I think the party has to be more creative in adapting to a more diversified society and economy,” he said.

At congress, the delegates will elect a new Central Committee and a new Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, adopt an amendment of theparty’s Constitution, examine a report submitted by the outgoing 17th Central Committee, as well as handle other issues, according to organizers.

Besides Xi, Vice Premier Li Keqiang, who is widely expected to be elevated to premier in March next year, and several others will be elected to the Standing Committee of the party’s Political Bureau at the first plenary session of the 18th Central Committee, which is expected to be held a day after the congress ends.

Along with the lineup of the Politburo Standing Committee, whose nine seats are rumored to be reduced to seven, apparently to boost efficiency in decision-making, analysts are watching whether Hu will retain his top military post as chairman of the party’s Central Military Commission — as was the case with his predecessor Jiang Zemin.

China watchers say Zhang Dejiang, a vice premier andparty secretary of Chongqing, and Vice Premier Wang Qishan appear certain to join the top echelons of power.

Hu’s power base, the Communist Youth League of China, the so-called Shanghai faction led by Jiang, and a group of privileged children of former senior party, government and military officials known as “princelings” have been engaged in backstage negotiations to appoint the next generation of leaders.

==Kyodo