LEAD: China's ex-president set to yield last powerful post

0 Comments | Asian Political News, Sept 14, 2004

NEW YORK, Sept. 7 Kyodo

(EDS: ADDING DETAILS)

Jiang Zemin, China's military chief and senior leader, has told Communist Party officials that he plans to resign, prompting an intense and so far inconclusive struggle for control of the armed forces, the New York Times reported Monday on its website.

The newspaper, quoting people in Beijing with leadership connections who were informed about a bargaining session under way at a government compound in western Beijing, said it remained unclear whether Jiang, 78, genuinely intended to step aside, or if he would do so on terms acceptable to President Hu Jintao, 62.

It said Jiang's offer to relinquish authority as chairman of the Central Military Commission potentially gives Hu -- who succeeded Jiang as head of the Communist Party and president of China in 2002 and is now vice chairman of the military commission -- a chance to become the country's undisputed top leader, commanding the state, the army and the ruling party.

Jiang reportedly announced his resignation to a meeting of senior party officials late last week, a move which came ahead of the convening of a national party meeting this month.

An official was quoted by the New York Times as saying it is possible that Jiang has calculated that he will be called on to remain military chief or to hold another position of influence.

People who were told about the proceedings reportedly said, on condition of anonymity, his resignation is the most contentious since a partial transfer of power to younger leaders took place in 2002.

But the report said that those who described the secretive proceedings probably have only a partial understanding of what happened and have received their information from other individuals who have a vested interest in the outcome.

A party official was quoted as saying he had been notified that the formal agenda for the coming meeting of the party's 198-member Central Committee -- a discussion of how to improve party governance -- had been scrapped, which the report said was as an indication that it had been overtaken by the broader power struggle.

Last week, it noted, Zeng Qinghong, China's vice president and Jiang's top lieutenant, skipped the opening ceremonies of the Central Party School, where he was to have delivered the keynote address. People at the party school were quoted as saying emergency meetings had made it impossible for Zeng to attend.

The report noted that Hu and Jiang are widely thought to represent different schools of thinking on some major issues, and that their struggle for influence is widely believed to have tipped China toward a harder line on several sensitive issues, including managing relations with Taiwan and political change in Hong Kong.