Bowing out? China's cadres set to linger longer

President Jiang Zemin, 75, may be allowed to hang on to the powerful position of chairman of the CMC for a while

(CNN) -- Beijing has failed to set a retirement age for senior cadres in spite of pronouncements by central authorities that they had accomplished the goal of the reform of government institutions.

And a number of powerful cadres in the Communist party and People's Liberation Army (PLA) are lobbying vigorously to allow senior officials to serve beyond 70.

The state media on Thursday quoted Premier Zhu Rongji as saying in a conference on organizational reform that China had "basically completed the reform of its government structure."

The China News Service reported that as a result of administrative streamlining started by Zhu in early 1998, 1.15 million party and government officials have been loped off.

CNS said staff in party units had been cut by 20 percent. Corresponding figures for the State Council and provincial administrations were respectively 47 percent and 48 percent.

The central government and official media have also claimed that much headway has been reached in rejuvenation.

CNS said the proportion of civil servants below 40 years of age had been raised from 53 percent to 59.6 percent.

More by Willy Wo Lap Lam Eye on China archive

Party sources in Beijing said, however, that party and government authorities had failed to reach an agreement on the retirement age for top cadres, including Politburo members, premiers and vice-premiers as well as members of the policy-setting Central Military Commission (CMC).

While it has generally assumed by party members and civil servants that the retirement age for senior cadres is 70, nothing has been formalized.

A spokesman at the National People's Congress last March confirmed that there was no definite or legally-binding retirement age for top leaders.

The party sources said since late last year, senior PLA officers led by the Chief Political Commissar General Yu Yongbo had been lobbying for a retirement age of 75 for CMC members.

The less stringent retirement age, if adopted, will allow veterans such as Yu, 72, and the Chief of Staff General Fu Quanyou, 72, to serve for a few more years.

Most significantly, President Jiang Zemin, 75, who is known to want to keep his concurrent post of CMC chairman, will be allowed to hang on to the powerful position for a while.

It is understood that Premier Zhu and Vice-president Hu Jintao, who was with Zhu at the conference on institutional reform, have opposed efforts to extend the retirement age.

However, Jiang aides have subtly encouraged military officers as well as civilian cadres to write petitions to party authorities asking for the president to postpone his retirement "in the interest of continuity and stability."

At the 15th party congress in late 1997, Jiang, then 71, had offered to step down from all his positions for age reasons.

However, he allowed himself to be persuaded that he should stay on for the good of the country.