Democracy advocates and other usual suspects have been placed under arrest. That means something of political import is about to happen, and that would be the 16th Chinese Communist Party Congress. This event is expected to mark a transition of power to a new generation of leaders. The future leadership will have many issues to deal with, especially the relevance and the legitimacy of the one-party rule of the Communist Party in China. But before they can get to work, they'll have to actually have power transferred to them...
Jiang Zemin (who came from Shanghai, perhaps the most Westernized place in China) is the current paramount leader and the successor to Deng Xiaoping (the man who brought Capitalist style economic reforms to China, and also the Tiananmen Square tragedy.) But Jiang, like Deng in his time, is getting older and the time has come for him to retire. Even in retirement however, Jiang Zemin appears set to continue the tradition established by Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping to keep a tight hold on power, and to continue influence events from behind the scenes.
Overseas Chinese dissidents have written an open letter to this month's Communist Party Congress, urging greater democracy and the release of political prisoners.
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