The party congress could rival an American political convention as grist for satire, but the Chinese Communist Party and its leaders still take themselves much too seriously for that. Many aspects of the congress remain depressingly familiar and seemingly out of touch. The seats held a sea of model workers, party hacks, a few ambitious officials and token minority members from southern China snapping souvenir photos of themselves inside the Great Hall of the People. But now the words are being used as a balm to soothe anxieties and smooth over party differences. No matter how empty the rhetoric sounds, the language used by the Communist leadership provides the only clues about what goes on behind the closed doors of the party's inner circles.
Much political analysis is really textual analysis.
The next generation doesn't see it that way. They are more individualistic. They believe in themselves. These days, Chinese can afford to be indifferent to the party congress. With economic reforms, the party is less of a factor in the daily lives of most people.