ABSTRACT
When the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was due to meet in full session between 9 and 11 October 2000, the published agenda indicated that it would be concentrating on the Tenth Five-Year Plan for the development of the national economy and, in particular, the Western Development programme, the grand plan for developing the impoverished western regions of the country. (For details of this programme, see Chapter 21.)
In reality, the meeting was at least as concerned to establish the basis for a smooth transition from the generation of leaders led by Jiang Zemin to what would become known as the fourth-generation (di sidai) leadership of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The impending retirement of President Jiang Zemin, Premier Zhu Rongji, and the Chairman of the National People’s Congress (NPC), Li Peng, within two years was confi rmed and the names of the men who were to lead the new generation were given new prominence: they were Hu Jintao as VicePresident, Wen Jiabao as Vice-Premier and Zeng Qinghong, promoted to be the head of the CCP’s Organisation Department.
