Jiang's staying power meets resistance

Congress will have to decide whether Jiang should retire as general secretary

(CNN) -- President Jiang Zemin's bid to stay in power has encountered new resistance even as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) announces that its 16th Congress will be held on November 8.

The official Xinhua news agency reported late Sunday that the party's five-yearly congress would elect a new Central Committee as well as Central Commission for Disciplinary Commission, the nation's highest anti-graft watchdog.

It said the major meeting would uphold the theories of late patriarch Deng Xiaoping and the "Theory of the Three Represents," that the party represents the foremost productivity and culture as well as the interests of the masses.

Xinhua added the congress would sum up the "basic experience of [the party's] great endeavors in building socialism with Chinese characteristics" for the past 13 years.

While most congresses have been held in either September or October, the 16th conclave has been delayed largely because of senior cadres' inability to come to a conclusion on whether Jiang, 76, should retire from the top post of party general secretary.

A party source said Jiang and his aides had been aggressively lobbying Politburo members as well as regional leaders on the septuagenarian serving as party chief for at least a few more years.

However, the source said, a number of heavyweight cadres and party elders had made it clear they would only accept Jiang remaining as Chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC).

As an added inducement, these cadres also told Jiang they would not object to his staying Head of the party's Leading Group on Taiwan Affairs.

Shanghai Faction

However, Jiang supporters, including the generals and members of the powerful Shanghai Faction, have continued with their vociferous campaign to have the president hang on to power.

"Jiang will make a final decision on whether to retire from the post of party chief shortly before he leaves for his U.S. tour in late October," the source said.

"If opposition remains strong, the pragmatic president may agree to settle for the position of CMC chief."

Diplomatic analysts said the wording of Xinhua's terse report Sunday night seemed to indicate that Jiang would make at least a partial retirement.

The analysts said the reference to "summing up" the party's work since 1989, when Jiang came to power, would mean an era was coming to an end and that the congress would open a new page in party history with a new leadership.

Moreover, they said, it was significant that while the Xinhua dispatch cited the supreme position of Deng Xiaoping Theory and the "Theory of the Three Represents," it did not specifically say "Jiang Zemin's Theory of the Three Represents."

It has been reported that while Jiang's political foes have agreed to putting the "Three Represents Theory" into the CCP Constitution, they have objected to giving all the credit of the creed to Jiang -- or putting Jiang's name in the revised charter.