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Party Looks Beyond China's 'Miss Fix-It'
Vice Premier Wu Yi is planning to retire this year. It is unclear if officials -- voting this week by secret ballot -- will elevate another women to a senior position.
(By Gerald Herbert -- Associated Press)
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Like many female delegates, Liang and Zuo look up to Wu, who never married and who has remained above the gossip and fray that surrounds other high-profile leaders.
"Wu Yi is my idol," Zuo said. "She always plays a central role in international discussions and she's coolly in control. She really makes us women feel proud."
Among the women who analysts believe might be promoted into the Politburo is Liu Yandong, 61, head of the party's United Front department, which helps keep non-party organizations in line with party ideology. Perhaps more important, she is a former president of the Communist Youth League, the power base for President Hu Jintao.
Liu, a native of Jiangsu province who joined the party when she was 19, seems to have kept her head down as she rose through the ranks, first receiving a degree in chemical engineering, then working in a chemical plant before moving on to other party positions.
One of the biggest challenges for many Chinese women in politics is managing career and family in a society that is sometimes still more traditional than the West, despite rapid modernization here.
"A woman not only has to shoulder social responsibility but also family responsibility," said Song, the Qinghai governor, speaking during a break from a speech at the congress.
"We have to work as hard as we can on our jobs, while being responsible for maintaining the harmonious relationship inside our families, so that we are better supported by our families to participate in politics," Song said.
Russell Leigh Moses, a political analyst based in Beijing who is writing a book on the changing nature of power in China, said a female politician here has to be "three times as tough as her male counterparts in order to be politically effective."
Promotions usually are granted as a result of a directive from above to elevate more women in the party.
"And a woman is more likely to be elevated, it appears, if she enjoys good family connections first, as opposed to political contacts," Moses said. "Good contacts with politicians usually means, unfortunately, being a mistress -- as unfair as that moniker is."
Wu's reputation as a role model who cared about grass-roots causes was recognized at many levels of society, including by AIDS activist Gao Yaojie, an outspoken critic of the government. She met Wu for two hours in December 2003.
Gao, now 80, recalled a car belonging to the Henan provincial government arriving in Zhengzhou to take her to a hotel once used as a villa by Mao. Wu was inside the hotel, and her secretary barred other officials from the room. Wu told Gao that they had been trying to reach her for more than two hours.
