China's Communist Party opens key meeting

Oct 15, 2011, 8:26 GMT

Beijing - Some 350 top members of China's ruling Communist Party began a four-day meeting on Saturday to plan future policies ahead of a scheduled leadership change next year.

The official theme of the meeting is 'cultural development' but analysts expect the event to cement the positions of leaders who are expected to be promoted at the party's five-yearly congress next October or November.

President Hu Jintao, who also heads the party, and Premier Wen Jiabao are among several top leaders who face mandatory retirement after next year's party congress.

Vice President Xi Jinping and Vice Premier Li Keqiang are widely expected to succeed Hu and Wen, respectively.

The government's Xinhua news agency said the Central Committee planned to discuss 'issues on deepening the reform of the country's cultural system and promoting the development and prosperity of socialist culture'.

'Currently, China is facing rare opportunities for cultural development as the country stands at a pivotal stage for building up an overall prosperous society,' the agency said.

The Central Committee is expected to issue a policy statement and other documents on Tuesday.

The meeting takes place amid a growing debate over the management of microblogs and other social networking services for China's estimated 500 million internet users, of whom about 200 million hold microblog accounts.

'China's internet watchdog has urged the building of a healthy, orderly environment for microblogging,' the agency said in a separate report on Saturday.

Microblogs, especially the hugely popular Sina Weibo, have thrived despite government controls.

Users sometimes manage to outwit internet censors and circulate news of prominent dissidents and rights activists. They often report breaking news of accidents and other events before state media.

Authorities have detained some microbloggers accused of spreading rumours or revealing 'state secrets' online.

Government departments have also responded by opening more than 40,000 microblog accounts to 'release timely, authorized information and receive feedback from the people,' Xinhua said.

At the equivalent Central Committee meeting in 2006, the Central Committee agreed to place Hu's ideas for 'building a socialist harmonious society' at the centre of its work.

Some 75 million of China's 1.3 billion people are Communist Party members, while a similar number are members of the Communist Youth League, according to the party's statistics.

But most ordinary Chinese people have little interest in the party's ideology.