Shanghai (AsiaNews/Agencies) – The congress of the Shanghai Communist Party starts on 12 May, the first since a pension scandal in 2006 axed the leadership group. The two days of deliberations are expected to yield clues as to the power structure in the Chinese Communist Party in the lead-up to the seventeenth national congress scheduled for autumn.
Xi Jinping, the Shanghai Communist Party secretary elected in March, is expected to explain his policies. Xi replaced Chen Liangyu, who was sacked for corruption when he misappropriated more than 10 billion yuan (around one billion euros) of the municipal pension fund. Experts believe his removal is part of a struggle between the new leadership of President Hu Jintao and the power structure of his predecessor, Jiang Zemin, which has always had its stronghold in Shanghai. Xi is the son of a veteran Communist purged by Mao Zedong in the fifties but who returned to grace after the death of Mao in 1976. Some analysts believe he is very faithful to the new leadership while others say he is a candidate of “compromise” and a protégé of the vice-president, Zeng Qinghong, once an ally of Jiang. The congress will choose delegates for the Communist Party national congress slated for this year.
The Shanghai Commission for Discipline Inspection - responsible for investigations within the party – should be reporting on developments in the “pension scandal”.
After the congress, the visit of Premier Wen Jiabao is expected next week for the annual meeting of the African Development Bank that opens on 16 May. Wen will be the first high-ranking politician to visit Shanghai after the breaking of the pension funds scandal. Experts think it is a sign that the situation will be “normalised” after the city congress.