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Peter Parks / AFP - Getty Images
Chinese President Hu Jintao is seen speaking at the opening of the 18th Communist Party Congress on a television in a subway train in Shanghai on Nov. 8.
BEIJING -- I arrived in Beijing for what the Global Times, a Chinese newspaper, described as “one of the biggest political events in history.”
“Are you watching?” I asked my driver on the way in from the airport. He looked at me and laughed. “Why would I watch that?” he replied.
A little later I settled down in my hotel bar over a glass of Great Wall cabernet sauvignon. “Are you watching the Congress?” I asked my server. Again that quizzical look. “Oh, I don’t care about that,” she replied, before slipping behind the bar and resuming whatever she was doing on her mobile phone, which judging by her concentration she did care about very much.
The 18th Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) has begun with great pomp and ceremony in the Great Hall of the People on Tiananmen Square. It is important -- a once-in-a-decade leadership change at a time when the country is facing enormous challenges, from a faltering economy to rampant corruption that goes to the core of the party.
China launches once-in-a-decade changing of guard
But among many Chinese, away from the stuffy heart of this city (from which carrier pigeons have been banned, incidentally, as a security precaution), the meeting might as well be taking place on the moon, among green aliens with spiky heads.
That's how relevant it seems to them.
The official media has given it blanket coverage, while at the same time trying to limit discussion in China's vibrant social media -- slowing internet speeds and even blocking the Chinese translation for the 18th Congress from search engines.
Aside from the pigeon ban, taxis are required to keep their back windows locked, presumably to prevent the distribution of subversive pamphlets, and tiny remote-controlled aircraft have been outlawed.
24 hours after President Barack Obama was re-elected to the White House, the world's other major power, China, began the very different process of choosing its new leader. It happens once every ten years, and lasts just a week. And in case there was any doubt, the ruling Communist Party began by pledging never to have Western democracy. NBC's Angus Walker reports.
Still, the party “will continue to inject vigor to national politics,” declared the Global Times at the weekend.
“Vigor” isn’t the first world that comes to mind when you see the line up of gray men (you’ll be hard pressed to find many woman near the top of the CPC) in gray suites, gathering mostly to dutifully endorse decisions already made.
Throwback: China's ex-president flexes power broker muscle in Beijing
Much of the proceedings are behind closed doors and the main qualification for advancement in the party is to not the rock the boat. Opinions are dangerous; flamboyance can be fatal to a career in the CPC.
Diego Azubel / EPA
The party is expected to use the highly orchestrated event to persuade the nation's 1.3 billion people that it can provide another 10 years of economic growth and social stability while curbing corruption and nepotism.
The report from the retiring party boss and head of state, Hu Jintao, which kicked off the Congress, hailed as a masterpiece by Chinese newspapers, was of such length and mind-boggling tedium that initially it left analysts struggling to figure what precisely whether it was reformist, reactionary, liberal or conservative.
Probably all of the above.
Just ahead of Congress, I had embarked on a journey across the Beijing to test opinion. It was hardly scientific, but I figured I'd at least get a sense of what ordinary Chinese were thinking.
I started by bike in the narrow alleyways around the surviving hutongs in an older part of the city.
Here the residents are older too, and a question from a foreigner about the Communist Party, produces an embarrassed wave of the hand, or provokes a speedy retreat behind closed doors. Ordinary Chinese of a certain age have seen how capricious and brutal the party can be and know better than to openly discuss politics with a foreigner.
Despite deadly week, Communist Party says Tibetans 'feel very happy'
An exception was an elderly man who stood bold upright and recited how China's new leaders would build a strong and prosperous country. But what of Xi Jinping, the man soon to be anointed leader. What does he stand for, how exactly will he do that, I asked. The door swung open and he too was gone.
I approached a man barbecuing some skewered lamb. He claimed not to understand my interpreter, though did I detect an extra touch of aggression with those skewers at the mention of the party?
I then took a taxi figuring that cabbies everywhere have an opinion. But not this one, shaking his head, waving his hand, and probably wishing his wheezing vehicle had an ejector seat. I pressed on. I know what President Obama listens to on his iPod, I explained, and what Mitt Romney has for breakfast. Did he think Xi Jinping has an iPod?
At that he just burst out laughing, and laughed, and laughed, until he dropped me at a Beijing university, where my luck changed.
While the candidates are scrutinized and skewered by the media in the U.S., China's new leader Xi Jinping remains a man of mystery among his citizens. NBC's Ian Williams reports
Here almost all the youngsters I met had heard of Xi, but professed to know hardly anything about him. What does he stand for? Two young women looked blankly at each other. "We don’t know," they said in unison, as if this was the most stupid question they'd ever heard. Does Xi have kids? I asked another couple. "I don't know," said one. "And I don't care." said the other.
Another young man looked puzzled. "But we don't vote," he said, which I guess goes to the heart of the matter. Why should we care, he seemed to be saying, what's this process got to do with us?
Perhaps out of desperation, I did what a lot of Beijingers are doing these days and went to a fortune teller. He rumbled me immediately, and declared that he didn’t do politics, and that his crystal ball certainly didn't stretch to the Communist Party. "I don't know and I don’t care," he declared.
The party, at least its more perceptive members, do seem to recognize the challenges they -- and China -- face. But the prescription for these ills appears to be more of the same. Its still a brave and lonely voice that will call for greater openness, transparency and accountability.
CNBC's Michelle Caruso-Cabrera reports on China's selection of new leaders to meet public calls for better government and give the economy a boost.
The congress will end with the unveiling of the new leadership. Yet in spite of acres of fevered analysis from China-watchers, the reality is that we know virtually nothing about what Xi Jinping thinks about anything, let alone the secretive process by which he was selected.
Is he another grey and cautious techocrat or a closet reformer? Take your pick. We can all be experts in the face of the party's secrecy.
Embassy ballots give Chinese a taste of democracy ahead of power transfer
On paper at least the Communist Party has 82 million members, but only a tiny clique make the real decisions, and there is an enormous gulf -- vast and growing -- between them and the people it is supposed to represent, a gulf filled increasingly with cynicism and distrust.
Peter Parks / AFP - Getty Images
President Hu Jintao, seen on a television in a motorcycle repair shop in Shanghai, called for stepped-up political reform and a revamped economic model as the Communist Party opened a historic congress to usher in a new slate of leaders.
China has changed dramatically since the party last changed its leaders a decade ago -- from the economy to the thriving social media that's such a thorn in the side of the leadership, and where the timing of the leadership change, so soon after the raucous U.S. election has provoked many an uncomfortable (for the party) comparison.
The dynamism elsewhere in China is in stark contrast with the ossified spectacle on display this week in the Great Hall. Those carrier pigeons are the least of the party’s problems.
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can't stir up a ripple in a frozen pond. People running the country knows if they screw up on things that mattered, their heads would end up on a pike... literally. If that's the card you are holding, the best way to play it is remain quiet and mysterious, let the other side step gingerly never knowing where the firm ground lies.
The Chinese cabbie and cocktail waitress are smarter than most Americans. They know that, regardless of who is in power, their pocket is gonna get picked.
This is why I dont understand why libs are so adamant on more Government control. Do they not understand that our Government will some day be controlled by Republicans as well? More government involvement is BAD!
You seem confused. Democrats don't want more government control. That's what Republicans want. They want the federal government to decide who can marry who, and they want to tell pregnant women what they can and cannot do with their bodies. The government control they want to remove are the rules that say companies can't pollute our air so bad our children get sick. Rules that attempt to prevent companies from dumping chemicals into the waterways that kill local residents. That's the Freedom the GOP is fighting for. The freedom for corporations to do as they like.
"Democrats don't want more government control" oh BS! Wake up people.
Having lived in China I can say it is just new frosting on an old cake !
And anyone who delights in doging the U.S. should go live in China and then tell me how great it is
NOT having any freedom as we know it in the U.S. !
In China, their version of the GOP outlawed other political parties.
I honestly dont think you lived in china. I know people personally who have and they loved it. They come back here to the states and say we are definitely not open minded nor open to other cultures.
The word "cautious" describes the Chinese people. The word "corruption" describes the Chinese government. In China, God forbid you are the nail that sticks up.
They don't want to talk, because they don't want to draw attention to themselves. Like you say, they don't want the hammer to fall on them.
Meanwhile, America has more laws governing its citizens than China... or any other country in the world, for that matter. Meanwhile, America spies on its own citizens, and saying the wrong thing online could bring the feds knocking at your door in the middle of the night. Meanwhile, Americans cluck their tongues at how not free the rest of the world is and boast about how free they themselves are, even as they can't take a @!$%# without the State literally telling them how much water they can flush with their turds. The most un-free people are those who even don't realize that they're living in a cage.
You are a fool to believe that the Chinese have it better than the US citizens. Why don't you move there?
I know a lot of people who have moved there for exactly that reason. You keep your mouth shut about the government and they basically leave you alone. The ones who have already moved there may just be getting ready for when this country is the same as China. If we do not have a revolution soon, we will be just like China except with more rules and laws to follow. At least they don't have to pay a penalty to the government if they don't have health insurance!
First, I dont see millions of undocumented Chinese here, so there must be an incentive...
Second, just like in America, if you do not have money to buy your peers, you are a guilty bad person whos life will be destroyed if the government has targeted you...and your voice, well its just way too damn small for anyone to hear it
you either have a government that will take, watch you fly down the poverty slide and tell you let "capitalism previl"
or you have a government that will take, watch you fly down the poverty slide and claim everyone is equal
i really just see two cages...one claiming to be better than the other...
Ignorance runs deep in your life i see..Don't talk until you are better educated,you just make yourself look stupid with that comment..
roadlesstraveld,Good post.Unilke all the sheeple who post it is good to know that there is still an intelligent minded person who has not been brainwashed due to complacency.
i agree 100 percent unclean. But your name is a little weird. lmao.
You do not know how watchful are communists. You are not safe inside your own family. Well, with Obamization of America we will soon have country of radicals and communists.
I just got back from about a month in China. I am stunned to see the progress that the press does not show us of China. Sure there is poverty in the interior but the big cities are alive and vibrant. Their political apathy is not much different than what you find here in the US. They are just to busy making a good life for themselves to care much about politics. Since my visit my attitude toward China has definitely become very positive. They will make a great ally for the US in that region of the world.
Get out of the cities. That's where they don't put any money. That's where the work farms are. When they richest people in the country are the members of the government there is something really wrong. They will never be the US's ally. They are worse than Russia ever was.
That is awesome to hear...I am glad you had a good experience! I see a very positive outcome for this world if we started expressing the positives in other nations instead of always making the US a victim and demonizing the welfare of other countries.
the riches people in our country tell the government when to eat, sleep, play, kill, war, do nothing, cause layoffs, turn the country against my "competition"...etc
Id rather the government be honest about their boaloted banks accounts intead of lying to our faces about it
Clayton,The Chinese can't speak out against their government.They are not free and no amount of financial progress is a substitute for a person's freedom of speech.I know first hand Chinese people who have immigrated to America and they have no desire to go back.They work hard to save up money so that their other relatives can immigrate to the U.S.
Clayton I agree with your statement. The americans here are just filled with 100 percent hate and jealousy. Number 2, they have no clue what its like there besides what they hear on news by the crappy media who doesnt know sh-it. Everyone I know who came back from there loved it. And by the way america with your BIG Mouth we are going to start ww3.
Damned Commies!
All I have to say is, "Man who go to bed with itchy butt, wake up with smelly finger".
And you conservatives are willing to hold your breaths until your head pops because you think Obama is destroying the country. Then move to China. In the wake of Romney getting "owned" by Obama, many Republicans supporters are vowing to engage in mass emigration to other countries just to escape the leadership of Obama. Well,...can I suggest China as a consideration of relocation.
At least you wouldn't have to get used to the food since we have a lot of Chinese restaurants in America anyway. Bon voyage!
OLO CHINESE PROVERB: Privileged sore losers who complain even when the have it good, end up with infections of the mouth. In other words, SHUT UP SHUTIN' UP!
Pete,The Painter,The Chinese food that is served in restaurants in the U.S. is not authentic Chinese food no more than pizza is an Italian dish. I believe that this article is about the Chinese political party,the communists and not about our recent presidential election.
China today: more big buildings, same goofy government.
I wonder how many more decades that old school model will actually work for them?
I guess we will find out.
Nah, we'll all be dead before then!
Whoever wrote this article obviously has his head up his ass.
Somebody told me that after Romney's lost, his family took him out to a pizza joint to cheer him up. But, he lost his appetite and his cool when the waitress finally placed the pizza on their table. Romney told his wife he couldn't eat the pizza because the pepporoni and cheese had the image of Obama's face on it.
He was so angry with the pizza that he ordered a plate of Hot Wings instead. Either way hot steam was coming out of his head that night. Heehee!
Chinese people would like to taste a little freedom something we take for granted here. it seems that they can't express a simple innocent conversation there with anybody. But our president is working hard to get us there don't worry it take time but we'll get there.
You are so right. There are so many of us who are blantly taking freedoms for granted. if unemployement is 7.9% among Whites and it is around 12% (possibly more) amoung Blacks, how privileged and ungrateful some of you are to complain. Others are having it way worst and you constantly complain about your freedoms being taking away. There are many folks here in American who might as well not have any freedoms because of how low on the totem pole they are. The deck is staked against them on average.
Obama has only one term left. How can one man destroy our country in four years. That's insane talk. It's down right delusional. That's how the Indian Race got stuffed out because of the mass delusions and paranoia that gave reason to greedy and fearful settlers for them to destroy instead of sharing the land with Native Americans. The more they shared; the more thieves took and reasoned that God wanted them to do that. Thank God, we have laws in place to prevent looney but deadly folks from repeatng the same thnig. If not for that, Obama would be dead toast.
The same mentality that allowed Bush to invade an innocent country (Afghanistan, not Iran) is the same type of mentality it takes to destroy other countries and people for the wrong reasons. And the citizens of America cheered every step of he way in support of these illegal killings. Yet Obama has sought to end the wars and bring Economic healing and Republican misleaders hinder and allow hate to hold our country hostage with the Fiscal cliff. This whole conservative mess is self-inflicted. Not willing to compromise for he good of all people. Cutting off the nose to spite the face.
The people has spoken and they are in favor of Obama's plans. So get out of the way and let himi lead. That's why the people elected him in office. I'm sure Boehner and others did not vote for him. The people did. And they want compromise and balance. Now who is going against the wishes of the people? Extortionist bullies are what Boehner and crew are. Just like those in China. They don't care about the will of the people. Only their egotistical will and jealousies. And you have the unmittigated gall to blame Obama. So sad. So sick.
Greg your an idiot. You should move there. The chinese people are much more respectful and know what that means compared to the americans here. Plus its a hell of alot nicer.
A political junkie who had to check his blackberry every 10 minutes on election day to see who wins cannot figure how why other people may not care about politics as much as he does.
The jaded Chinese citizens have seen the coming and going of politicians in all colors. They know all politicians are liars and puppets of the rich guys. All of them will happily pick the middle class' pocket while shouting "I will fight for you, the middle class!"
So, unlike the naive and gullible US sheeple, they don't care who becomes the president. Why should they?Just look at Obama, for most part he just continued Bush's policies for four more years after promising he would do otherwise.
I would guess the chinese leaders would love to ban the "Emperor wears no clothes" story. It's amazing how they just pass law forbidding this and that just to stay in power. As bad as you have it in America, that's one thing you can bet not going to happen that easily.
He will continue to screw the American people long, hard, deep, wide, and continuously with unfair trade balances and our very own Obunghole, along WITH the house AND senate, will continue to cheer him on, but only at the direct orders from their puppet masters, the global elitists. Hide and watch.
ah weeel, since we are doing proverbs this am, here is one as well;"when you are defending the indefensible, you are a dog barking at shadows",..and yes that is an old chinese! proverb[confucius I believe?? or at the least "confucian",.]
Citizens in 15 states have filed petitions to secede from the United States after Tuesday’s election. These include Louisiana (which led the charge), the Republic of Texas, Kentucky, Colorado, New Jersey, Montana, North Dakota, Indiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Alabama, Florida, Georgia and Oregon. And somewhat hilariously, someone in North Dakota filed a petition requesting New York secede, which seems pretty rude, given they are sort of handling a major natural disaster right now. Although this is largely seen as symbolic, the filers in each state still have a month to gather 25,000 signatures to have their peaceful withdrawal from the U.S.A. considered by the president.
IT is not true that older chinese or any chinese are taught that speaking with a foreigner about politics is an absolute no no. This is where a lack of understanding from american journalists leads to untruths being spewed as verbatim about another culture. I speak openly with past and present generals and colonels, high ranking police officers as well as ordinary citizens, like teachers and nurses, about politics. The reason, the people of beijing were afraid of you, was your inherent americanness, of being so forward, and unsympathetic to be respectful to their culture where those things like kissing aren't done with someone you just met on the street. Especially a westerner. Especially a western journalist. When we talk politics in china, it always done in a social setting, whilst drinking beer, and having a wonderful experience speaking of ideology, and the vast distrust the chinese citizenry has of the american media, and its holier than thou attitude. How they are yet intrigued as to learn our life is not how our media portrays it, just as theirs is not the way either western journalists or chinese journalists portry it. When they find pleasingly different qualities and characteristics of westerners not "brainwashed" by the same balderdash the american government and its media as well their own government and its media spews to its citizenry, they relax and open up freely about anything. They are just like us. we are just like them. Don't ever ever believe different. We have different cultures, upbringings and lifestyles, but in the end we are very much the same as human beings. Scared of the unknown, yet fascinated by it, so much as to want to reach out and embrace it without bias.
Bartholemew Downie
You are absolutely right. Its absolutely amazing how our media is soo full of crap I cant even listen to half the bull they say anymore. China is a very wealthy country and I know for a fact we can learn great values from them. We as Americans on the other hand do a damn good job at pissing off others, demonizing countries, and making no friends. And what little friends we have damn near cant stand us. SAD....
It's NO DIFFERENT HERE in the U.S.! It sounds just like us! We, the 99% American People have allowed the corrupt Republican corporate MONARCHY to INFILTRATE & HAND-PICK what political puppets they want so they can STEAL FROM US with their UNCONTROLLED CAPITALISTIC GREED of which there is NO END IN SIGHT!
Spoken like a true communist. And how much did the POTUS raise for his campaign?? There are just as many rich Democrates. The whole Republican vs Democrates is a smoke screen, it really about those in power doing what they have to so they can keep all of us in control.
@ Bartholemew, thanks for making us brash American's realize that everyone does not march to the same tone of the drum. That we should be conscious of other peoples cultural outlook and how they strive to solve their own National problems. Respect for each other is essential. 1 billion people are a far cry more than our 600 million peoples that may require a different approach than we American say the solution is.
Peace in the world requires faid exchange let's see if we can allow it.
Peace in the world requires fair exchange. Let see if we can allow it to happen. (correction)
If you are referring to the pop. of the US, when did it double to 600 million?
What lazy journalism! Personal stories. Unsupported assertion after unsupported assertion. Useless infotainment. A thing doesn't become true because many people say it is true. Ian Williams, read your assertions then ask, "Is this true. How do I know?" Then get back to us. We don't need to know about your bike ride. I ride a bike in China too. That doesn't make me knowledgeable about the political system.
If the Communist Party keeps this up, they will become irrelevant and go the way of the dinosaurs.
As though it has ever been relevant.....N.Korea,China and other Communist hell holes..:o)
Chinese people are generally apolitical and care less whether the government is ruled by the communists or the nationalists. As long as the government is benign and have the interest of people at heart they support that government.
It seems the current Chinese government has done a tremendous job of transforming the country from a poverty-stricken backward one to the current vibrant, advanced and affluent society, that Chinese are proud to be Chinese and rise up among the top nations in the world.
Give credit to where credit is due. Despite all the groom and doom predication and the negative images the western media tries to project China, the result speaks for itself and within the next six, seven years China will overtake US in absolute economical terms.