EDMONTON, Canada -- While China is celebrating the successful launch of its first manned spacecraft into orbit, there is indication that its political reform program is grounded for now.
The Chinese leadership considers the Third Plenum of the 16th Chinese Communist Party so significant that it planned the session right up to the day before China sent its first astronaut into space. But unlike the excitement the space mission has generated so far, the 300-plus CCP elites emerged from behind the doors after four days with little to deliver.
Since many Third Plenums of the CCP Congress have occupied a unique position in China's recent history, this session was built up with high expectations. It has been compared to the epoch-making Third Plenum of the 11th Party Congress in 1978 when Deng Xiaoping implemented his reform agenda that put China on the road to rapid economic growth. It was also leveled with the Third Plenum of the 14th Congress in 1993 when President Jiang Zemin presided over the systemic adaptation of the market economy.