XI JINPING ELECTED PRC VICE PRESIDENT

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 BEIJING 000984

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/16/2033
TAGS: PGOV CH
SUBJECT: XI JINPING ELECTED PRC VICE PRESIDENT

REF: A. BEIJING 898

B. BEIJING 873

C. BEIJING 809

Classified By: Political Section Internal Unit Chief Dan Kritenbrink.
Reasons 1.4 (b/d).

Summary and Comment
--------------


1. (C) Hu Jintao was "re-elected" President of China and
Chairman of the Central Military Commission by a plenary
session of the National People's Congress (NPC) on March 15.
The NPC deputies elected Xi Jinping PRC Vice President and
re-elected Wu Bangguo as the NPC Chairmman. Thirteen new NPC
Vice Chairmen were elected along with a 161-member NPC
Standing Committee that included recently retired former
Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing. The NPC also passed the draft
proposal on reorganizing State Council ministries that was
presented to deputies for discussion in an earlier session.
The election proceeding was highly ritualized, but the
general atmosphere was more relaxed than usual, with PBSC
members showing unusual emotion at the results and NPC staff
in the gallery engaging PolOffs in conversation. Comment:
The election of Xi, who was elevated to the Politburo
Standing Committee (PBSC) at the 17th Communist Party
Congress last October, would seem to be another indication
that he is in line to replace Hu Jintao as Party chief at the
18th Party Congress in 2012. End Summary and Comment.

Hu Jintao, Xi Jinping, Wu Bangguo Get Top Positions
-------------- --------------


2. (C) In an elaborately staged election ritual, which
included the Politburo Standing Committee (PBSC) members
descending in rank order from the dais to place their four
color-coded large (14" X 20") ballots in a huge red ballot
box at the beginning of the vote, Party chief Hu Jintao was
"re-elected" PRC President and Chairman of the state's
Central Military Commission (CMC). In a vote that would
appear to be a further indication that recently appointed
PBSC Member Xi Jinping is in line to succeed Hu as top Party
leader in five years, Xi was elected Vice President.
(Comment: Xi was one of two younger-generation leaders
elevated to the PBSC at the 17th Party Congress in October
and was ranked ahead of his peer, Li Keqiang.)


3. (C) The results of the voting, including votes for,
against and abstentions for each person, and the names of
write-in candidates, were read to the deputies and displayed
on large screens on both sides of the stage. Hu received the
least number of dissenting votes and Wu the second lowest
number among all candidates. While the number of votes cast
against Xi was not high in comparison to other candidates, it
was triple the number of votes cast against Wu. Deputies
erupted in laughter when former Party chief Jiang Zemin
received one write-in vote for President and former Premier
Zhu Rongji received one vote for CMC Chair, but were sober
when write-in votes for Vice President were announced. These
included five write-in ballots cast for PBSC member Li
Keqiang, Xi's competitor in the 2012 Party chief sweepstakes,
one for current Politburo Member Wang Zhaoguo and one for
outgoing Vice President Zeng Qinghong, who Xi will replace
and who stepped down from the PBSC at the 17th Party
Congress.

Voting Process
--------------


4. (C) In addition to electing top state leaders, the
deputies elected a slate of leaders for the new NPC,
including re-electing PBSC member Wu Bangguo to another
five-year term as NPC Chairman, Li Jianguo as the new NPC
Secretary-General, thirteen Vice Chairmen and an NPC Standing
Committee of 161 members, 14 less than the previous Standing
Committee. State Councilor Chen Zhili and Hua Jianmin,
former Secretary-General, were among the newly-elected Vice
Chairmen and former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Li Zhaoxing,
who stepped down last summer, was listed among those elected
to the NPC Standing Committee. The deputies had been given a
list of the candidates ahead of time, but these were not made
available to the media or diplomatic corps attending the
session. The number of candidates for the NPC Standing
Committee exceeded the number of positions by 12 (173
candidates for 161 positions). In order for their ballots to
be accepted, deputies were instructed to strike 12 names from
the ballot, or more if they wrote in candidates, and to
return 161 completed ballots with either an "approve"
(zancheng),"oppose" (fandui) or "abstain" (qiquan) by each
name. The names and results of all 161 new Standing
Committee members were read. Finally, the controversial
proposal to create several "super-ministries" in the State
Council was put to the vote and received a surprising number
of negative responses (117 negative votes and 99
abstentions).


5. (C) As Hu, Xi, and Wu in turn stood and bowed to the
audience, they received an enthusiastic ovation. The voting
results for the three leaders and the super-ministry proposal
are as follows:

Name/Item For Against Abstain Percent

Hu Jintao 2956 3 5 99.7
(President)
Xi Jinping 2919 28 17 98.5
(Vice President)
Hu Jintao 2959 4 4 99.7
(CMC Chair)
Wu Bangguo 2948 9 9 99.4
(NPC Chair)

Super Ministry Plan 2744 117 99 92.7
(failed to vote 4)

Some of the NPC Standing Committee candidates were sent a
strong message of disapproval, with one member receiving an
astounding 830 negative votes and 289 abstentions, 38 percent
of the 2948 ballots cast. If past practice holds, none of
these vote totals will be made public.

Grand Ritual in the Great Hall of the People
--------------


6. (C) Preceding the ritual parade of PBSC members from
their seats to the ballot box, the grand election drama
included the ceremonial anointment of special-uniformed
election monitors in front on the dais, the inspection and
placement of large colorful ballot boxes throughout the
assembled deputies by the monitors; the distribution of
ballots to the deputies by the monitors; the reading by an
NPC spokesman of complex rules governing the voting process;
the marking of the ballots; and finally, the insertion of the
four brightly-colored ballots in designated boxes by each
deputy with great fanfare under the monitors' watchful eyes.
As deputies were filling out their ballots, they were asked
to refrain from taking pictures, members of the media were
escorted out of the hall and diplomats were asked to turn off
their cameras. The media were allowed back in once the
deputies began depositing ballots in the boxes. Deputies
marked their ballots in front of their colleagues and made no
attempt to cover them before walking to the ballot boxes. One
of the NPC staff members sitting near PolOffs commented that
"this is different from your elections. We don't hide our
votes from others."


7. (C) The general atmosphere of the session was much more
relaxed, if not more informal, than other NPC plenary
sessions that PolOffs have attended in the past two years.
Politburo members seated on the dais chatted with one another
during the proceedings and displayed an unusual degree of
collegial emotion once the results were announced. Zeng
Qinghong, seated next to his successor Xi Jinping, stood up
and gave Xi an enthusiastic bear hug and then shook Xi's hand
for the cameras. Zeng then walked to Hu Jintao and Wu
Bangguo and embraced them in similar fashion to the delight
of the deputies. NPC staff seated near the diplomatic corps
on the second tier of the Great Hall auditorium interacted
amiably with PolOffs, explaining the proceedings and
responding to questions about their backgrounds and duties.
It quickly became clear that many of them did not know all
the players and did not fully understand the process
themselves, often giving inconsistent or contradictory
answers to PolOffs questions. One particularly well-informed
staff member, when asked why outgoing Vice President Zeng
Qinghong was present, but not outgoing Vice Premiers Wu Yi or
Zeng Peiyan, replied "it is all in the Constitution. Read
the Constitution." Meanwhile, Chinese observers were asking
about, or commenting to one another on, the identities and
capabilities of this or that Politburo member.

Comment
--------------


8. C) Xi Jinping's "election" to the Vice Presidency further
solidifies his status as heir-apparent to Hu Jintao.
Tomorrow, March 16, Premier Wen Jiabao is expected to be
"re-elected" and the CMC members "elected," and on March 17,
the slate of new Vice Premiers, State Councilors and
Ministers is expected to be voted on. The entire NPC session
will close on Tuesday, March 18.


RANDT