China to discuss reforms to avert Soviet-style collapse

A key meeting of the ruling Communist party will be held later this month to discuss economic and political reforms to avert threats of a Soviet-style collapse in China, state media reported today.
The Communist Party of China (CPC), which smoothly conducted the once-in-a-decade leadership change early this year, will hold its Plenary Session from November 9 to 12 in Beijing to study how to comprehensively deepen reforms and roll out a comprehensive reform package.
"With many expecting China's ruling party to kick off more intensive and tougher reforms at a key meeting this week, political analysts believed that the gathering will push forward the country's political restructuring," state news agency Xinhua said in a commentary.

"The reform package will concern economic, political, cultural and social systems, as well as those on ecological progress and the institutional construction of the CPC," the commentary said.
China's may be upbeat economic rebound in the third quarter but the investment-driven growth creates jitters as well as joy, as a looming reversal to the old growth model clouds long-term prospects, it said.
Of the 7.8 per cent GDP growth, investment contributed a lion's share of 4.3 percentage points outstripping consumption by 0.8 percentage points.

"Urban residential income grew sharply but at a slower rate, squeezing consumer spending," it said.
"The faltering economy, intertwined with a widening wealth gap, rampant corruption and rising social conflicts, put the world's most populous nation and the second largest economy at a crossroads," it said.

In pursuing political reforms, CPC leadership should keep in mind the collapse of the Soviet Union, analysts said.
"The Soviet Union had made subversive mistakes one after another, from one extreme to the other extreme, over the fundamental issues. As a result, the reform ended up with changing direction, and collapse of the Soviet Union Communist Party was inevitable," Xin Ming, a professor with the Party School of the CPC, told Xinhua.
Summing the leadership's thinking, President Xi Jinping, who took over the leadership this year, said, "The country must be bold enough to endure any pain, face up to any danger, and take on any intractable problem that it meets along the path of reform."

Calling political restructuring "an important part" of China's comprehensive reform, Yan Shuhan, another professor with the school, said the country's political restructuring should be advanced according to national conditions.
"Only through incorporating political restructuring into economic restructuring, can political structural reform in China achieve historic success," he said.