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Previous National Congresses
Special> CPC Celebrates 90th Anniversary 1921-2011> Previous National Congresses
UPDATED: March 30, 2011
The 14th National Congress
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The First Plenum of the 14th CPC Central Committee

The Second Plenum of the 14th CPC Central Committee

The Third Plenum of the 14th CPC Central Committee

The Fourth Plenum of the 14th CPC Central Committee

The Fifth Plenum of the 14th CPC Central Committee  

The Sixth Plenum of the 14th CPC Central Committee

The Seventh Plenum of the 14th CPC Central Committee

Full Text of Jiang Zemin's Report at 14th Party Congress

The First Plenum of the 14th CPC Central Committee

For eight days during mid-October the drama of succession unfolded inside the Great Hall of the People and other meeting sites in Beijing. At issue were the future of China's political leadership and the fate of its economic construction, reforms and open policy.

On the morning of October 19, seven men were chosen to form the new leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC) - the Politburo Standing Committee of the Central Committee. This indicated that the Party has smoothly finished the partial renewal of its central leadership and that Deng Xiaoping's policies will continue. It also answered the curiosity of the country and the world.

The seven major VIPs are General Secretary Jiang Zemin, Premier Li Peng, Qiao Shi - former secretary of the Commission for Inspecting Discipline of the Central Committee, Li Ruihuan - in charge of ideological work during the past three years, Vice-Premier Zhu Rongji - widely regarded as a rising star in China's political arena, General Liu Huaqing - a Red Army veteran and vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, and Hu Jintao - at 49 the youngest of the seven and Tibet's Party chief. Zhu, Liu and Hu are the new blood, replacing the retired Yao Yilin and Song Ping.

These seven top men and 15 other officials were elected by the new Party Central Committee during its first plenary session, forming the new Politburo. Besides Yao and Song, six other senior leaders have resigned their Politburo membership, including President Yang Shangkun, National People's Congress Standing Committee Chairman Wan Li, Defence Minister Gen. Qin Jiwei and Vice-Premier Wu Xueqian.

More than two-thirds of the Politburo members (including two alternates) are newcomers. Among them are Party secretaries in Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Guangdong and Shandong. There are no women in the new Politburo.

Selection of the new Party Central Committee, consisting of 189 members and 130 alternate members, was one of the major results of the 14th National Congress of the CPC, held October 12-18. About 600 Chinese and foreign reporters covered the congress, but few had a scoop. These journalists, like everyone else, learned of the election results and the reshuffling of the Party Central Committee and Politburo when official radio and TV stations announced the outcome.

Most members of the 14th CPC Central Committee are leaders in their fields, some are technical experts. Women members make up only 7.5 percent, and those from minority nationalities, 9.4 percent. Members under 55 years old account for 61 percent of the newly elected central committee, whose overall average age is 56.3, compared with 55.6 of the 13th Party Central Committee.

The education level of the current committee, however, is higher than the previous one. Official statistics show that 83.7 percent of the 14th committee members have university or junior college backgrounds, the percentage for the 13th committee was 73.3.

As a nationwide tendency, more and more younger and better-educated people have been elected or promoted. Between 1983 to 1991, about 266,000 young and middle-aged men and women were promoted to the posts at the county level and above. Of these officials, 64.3 percent had college or junior college educations, and 52.3 percent were under 45 years old.

In China, the principle for the selection and promotion of Party and government officials is that candidates be more revolutionary, younger, better educated and more competent - with both professional ability and political integrity.

When the timetable for the recently concluded Party assembly was set five years ago, few knew under what conditions the 14th Party Congress would proceed. As it turned out, the world witnessed an eventful and dramatic intervening period between the 13th and 14th congresses. Chinese Communists admitted that the international Communist movement is now at a low ebb due to the collapse of the former socialist countries in Eastern Europe. But the Chinese are fully confident of the socialist cause in their own country. They believed that under the leadership of the CPC the country will have a brighter future. "The past 14 years have proved," said a delegate from Guangdong Province, "that our Party is capable of leading the whole people in building a strong nation. Surely we can make it."

(NO. 43 OCTOBER 26, 1992, titled "New Party Leadership Formed ")

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