How Will China Select Its New Leaders At Its Communist Party Congress?
Preparations for a major shakeup of China's Communist Party leadership are all but complete, ahead of a national congress that begins in Beijing on Wednesday. President Xi Jinping, the party boss, is expected to cement his already considerable power and embark on a second five-year term.
Last Saturday, in an auditorium bedecked with red flags and hammer-and-sickle emblems, the party's outgoing central committee members raised their hands in unison to approve the congress's final preparations.
Beijing's streets are lined with security personnel, and police have hustled dissidents out of town on enforced "vacations" ahead of the country's most important political event.
Held every five years, the National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party is a piece of political theater that University of Victoria political scientist Wudescribes as being at once "holy" and "hollow."
