China’s Post-jiang Leadership Succession: Problems And Perspectives

As the 16th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (October 1st, 2002) draws near, China watchers in Washington, Tokyo, Taipei and many other places have their eyes intently fixed on the political scene in Beijing. Most are predicting problems involved in the transition process as well as speculating on the final leadership line-up. Nevertheless, such speculation is intellectually rather futile. To avoid being too speculative, the contributors to this study have focused instead on two key aspects of China’s leadership transition: first, changes in the politics of leadership transition, and second, real and potential problems and challenges that China’s younger, fourth generation leaders have to grapple when they take over.