Changing of the Guard: Many Urge China’s Next Leader to Press Reform

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Xi Jinping in Beijing in September at a banquet for the anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. Many are pushing for him to initiate policies to improve the economy.

BEIJING — After it was leaked that Xi Jinping, the man anointed to be the next Communist Party chief of China, had met in private with a well-known supporter of political liberalization, the capital's elite began to buzz about the import of the encounter.

Hu Deping, the son of a former leader, who went to Mr. Xi's home in July, has organized salons where the scions of powerful families have discussed how to keep the party from becoming mired in corruption and losing the trust of ordinary Chinese. People briefed on the meeting said Mr. Xi had declared his support for steady reform.

"Hu Deping through certain channels sent out the message that he had been meeting with Xi Jinping," said Zhang Lifan, a historian who knows Mr. Hu. "I think the two are trying to send a signal."

As China's critical once-a-decade leadership transition approaches in November, Chinese officials, policy advisers and intellectuals are again pushing for what they broadly call "reform" — a further opening up of the economic and political system that the party has constructed through 63 years of authoritarian rule. With China's economy slowing, the disconnect between haves and have-nots building, and state-owned businesses exerting even greater influence on policy, advocates for change say the status quo appears increasingly sclerotic.

Much of the talk now over China's future path centers on whether Mr. Xi, the son of a revolutionary leader who helped oversee China's post-Mao economic transformation, can muster the confidence, ideological grounding and power base to push through what reformers see as the policies needed both to keep China vigorous and help overcome its growing inequities. Mr. Xi, 59, has not revealed his plans and intentions — to rise to his level in the party system, survival depends on holding cards close, analysts say.

But the messages he is hearing are becoming clearer: a number of prominent people orbiting Mr. Xi are urging the party to adopt more liberal policies to regain the legitimacy it enjoyed when it was a revolutionary force.

The harsh expulsion last month of Bo Xilai, who tried to woo traditionalists and Maoists before he fell into disgrace, has also encouraged liberals to call for party leaders to adopt systemic changes. Hu Shuli, an influential Chinese journalist acquainted with Mr. Xi, published an editorial this month in her magazine, Caixin, under the headline "Bo Xilai as a Catalyst for Political Reform."

Those close to Mr. Xi who are urging reform go well beyond the usual liberal intellectual voices. They include active and retired officials, childhood friends from China's "red nobility," army generals and even a half-sister, Xi Qianping. Mr. Xi and his allies have dropped a few hints recently that Mr. Xi is at least open to hearing new ideas.

One political theorist said Mr. Xi, with the backing of Jiang Zemin, the former party chief, had overseen a team researching the Singapore model of governing that allows more liberal economic policies and political voices under one-party rule. Wu Si, the editor of a journal backed by liberal party elders, said that he has heard encouraging reports that "practical work on political system reform" could emerge after the transition.

Mr. Xi also recently issued an indirect warning about corrupt practices that have soiled the party's image, telling officials studying at the Central Party School in Beijing that "time should not be spent on networking and buying dinners."

To push systematic changes in the next few years, however, Mr. Xi will also need to assure the current party chief, Hu Jintao, that such a drive will not tarnish Mr. Hu's legacy, analysts say. On Oct. 16, Seeking Truth, a party journal, ran a long essay that trumpeted a July speech by Mr. Hu as setting the tone for reforms. "The conflicts that have arisen from reforms can only be solved by deepening reform," it said. The essay was read out on China Central Television.

When Mr. Hu took power in 2002, there was much hope among liberals and Westerners that he would push the kind of reforms being talked about once again. But many analysts and political insiders are now calling the years under him and Wen Jiabao, the prime minister, a "lost decade," in which China, for all its advancements, retrenched into a quasi-command economy, ignored legal protections and expanded the state security apparatus.

Analysts say that Mr. Xi faces great political risks in taking on the nation's many vested interests and possibly repudiating Mr. Hu's policies. Moreover, the authority of the top office has become more diffuse with each generation, and Mr. Xi would need to marshal powerful alliances to push through changes. Another obstacle to change is the way that Mr. Xi's own circle has profited from the current system: Bloomberg News reported in June that some members of Mr. Xi's family had amassed fortunes totaling at least several hundred million dollars.

Jane Perlez contributed reporting. Mia Li contributed research.

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