The Implications of the 16th Communist Party Congress

HONOLULU—On December 2, the special advisor to the president for global affairs at the University of Hawaii gave a special lecture to the Japan-focused and China-focused MBA students on the 16th Communist Party Congress of China.

Michael Lestz expounded on China’s past and the future in respect to the leadership changes decided in the congress held in November. The congress has been long anticipated in bringing about promised reform as a younger generation comes to power. Lestz, however is not as optimistic.

“The problem with reform in China is that you have perestroika, you have building, without a similar process of glasnost, a fundamental searching into the way political business is done in China,” Lestz said, “I think little help will come from this group of people ascended to power as a result of the 16th Party Congress. I think their approach will be business as usual.”

However, he commented that despite corruption, enduring problems, and confusing rhetoric of the government, China is flourishing economically and it will be interesting to see how its increasing abundance will affect the Communist Party.

“It’s going to be a long time before the Communist Party begins to pry apart as the parties of the Soviet Union and others did, but it’s certainly a party that needs to think in a very careful and self-conscious way about how it will incorporate other voices into the political life of China,” he said.

China’s Communist Party convenes a congress every five years to pick a new group of leaders to serve in various top ruling bodies, such as the Central Committee, the Politburo, the Politburo Standing Committee, and the party general secretary.

Michael Lestz was a founder of Trinity College’s International Studies Program and holds a doctorate in Chinese history from Yale University. Lestz was responsible for introducing Chinese and Japanese language to the Trinity curriculum and served as the first director of the Asian Studies major. He speaks eight languages and is currently special advisor to the president for global affairs at the University of Hawaii.