Opinion | Hope fades for reform and power sharing at the top
Five-year wait a political stalemate as vested interests too significant and too deeply intertwined for change to come from the top down
As a journalist, I am happy to see my prediction of a conservative-dominated Beijing leadership come true. As a Chinese, I am not.
Yes, I have seen suggestions that the next five years will allow time for Xi Jinping to consolidate his power and reformers will be able to join the Politburo Standing Committee when the five members retire in 2018.
Yet, I cannot agree this as a mere five-year delay in reform. It is not the dawn of hope that things will get better as Jiang Zemin comes to the end of his life and his power reduces. Rather, it's the beginning of hope fading.
This leadership change is not just another reshuffle. This is one that happens against the worst scandal in the Chinese Communist Party's history.
Less than eight months before the reshuffle, the public saw the fall of a Politburo member and potential leadership heir Bo Xilai.
They were told Bo has accumulated more than US$6 billion in graft; plotted a coup against the incoming leader Xi Jinping; protected his wife from a money-related murder; and was promiscuous. All these were divulged to the Americans by one of Bo's subordinates. They were told Bo was protected from any arrest by his allies at the top until the interference of four retired state leaders.
