New Chinese leadership - who cares?

[piece-itpete]

We sure don't, the only reason I heard of it was in passing over the row between Japan and China over some crappy islands: a Japanese reporter mentioned it was a bad time to inflame China because of the upcoming leadership change.

And the Chinese are remarkably (or perhaps not) passive over the choosing of new leadership in a few months:

"BEIJING: With China facing a worsening economy, its biggest political crisis in two decades, and growing public anger and domestic unrest, what do people here say about the seismic change about to take place in the country’s top leadership?

“Wu suo wei.” It doesn’t matter.

.......

The process is so cloaked in secrecy that no one knows for sure who’s in the running besides the top two officials set to replace President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao. Even the date of the Party Congress at which they will be announced remains unknown — with estimates ranging from September to November.

.......

Many of the more coercive actions — such as chasing rural petitioners appealing to the government for help and other troublemakers out of the capital — tend to begin closer to critical events, so it’s unclear just how this year’s security crackdown will compare with those seen during previous leadership transitions. But not since the 2008 Summer Olympics, residents say, has security seemed so tight.

.......

“You must forgive them, this is not something normal people talk about,” explained one low-wage worker after his co-workers answered one such question with silence at a cafeteria a few blocks west of the Party Congress venue in Beijing’s central Chao Yang district. “This is something for others to think about.”

.......

“We are walking down a road filled with serious problems,” said one 82-year-old retired party member exercising on a recent day at a downtown park. “So, of course, the direction of the country is important and depends on the upcoming meeting. But these are not things for ordinary citizens to know, so what’s there to talk about?”

"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/...430_story.html

A little different than our raucous system But with a waxing China I'd sure like to know what our leaders think about it.

Pete