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Party constitution to incorporate Jiang theory

By P. S. Suryanarayana

BEIJING Nov. 12. As the Communist Party of China today reached the "home stretch'' in its race to rejuvenate itself to meet the political spirit of the 21st Century, it became increasingly clear that the scope of the organisation's constitution might be enlarged in a way that could preserve the contributions of the CPC's chief executive, Jiang Zemin.

However, even as speculation gained greater currency on the sidelines of the ongoing 16th National Congress of the CPC about the possibility of a new leadership line-up, there was no conclusive evidence yet to suggest that the so-called "end-game'' of the political kind had begun within the party in this connection.

On the whole, as the party managers and Government functionaries intensified their presentations on the good work accomplished during the tenure of a "collective leadership'' under Mr. Jiang's guidance since 1989, the message signalled was that the Congress was nearing a decisive phase. With the CPC actively seeking to discard the proverbial bamboo curtain, which the party's Western critics have invariably portrayed as its defensive shield, the main word disseminated today on behalf of the ruling establishment was that of a consensus about the need to update the organisation's basic statute. The consensus was that it was the shared ``aspiration'' of the CPC's delegates to amend the party's constitution so as to outline Mr. Jiang's theory of "Three Represents'' as an essential ideological principle that would guide the long-surviving communist organisation.

A draft amendment to the party's constitution was already discussed by more than 2,000 delegates to the Congress. Mr. Jiang's proposition, which was first propounded long before the present Congress, is that the party should represent China's "advanced productive forces'' as also its progressive cultural "orientation'' and the ``fundamental interests'' of the overwhelming majority of the Chinese people.

Two inter-related aspects of the CPC's current strategy were cited by foreign diplomats and a few Chinese analysts here as being more decisive in scope than any other political signals.

First, either a leadership change or at least a leadership shuffle will be the only credible final act in a sequence that began with the process of refashioning the CPC itself, it is said.

Second, the CPC is not only seeking to sustain its monopoly of state power but also trying to perpetuate its hold on the levers of power, according to analysts and diplomats. The Deng Xiaoping dictum about political rejuvenation through personnel changes in the party seems to be the answer to the puzzle as to why a leadership overhaul should be considered necessary at this stage when Mr. Jiang's political ideas are being hailed as worthy ideological tools for the party.

Irrelevant, or at least imprecise, is the Western depiction of the current challenge before the CPC as an attempt to build "capitalist castles in the thin air of communism.''

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