New faces will show up after the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in a fresh line-up of the Political Bureau, the Party's top leadership.

Just like the metabolic process of all organisms, the infusion of younger blood is a matter of course for the Party. Thanks to the high degree of consensus about the approach to development, as well as the CPC's commitment to fundamental policies, a new roster is anticipated to help accelerate implementation of set goals.

Besides electing a new leadership core, the national congress' more important task is to review the Party's own governance philosophy and find ways to deliver more sophisticated leadership.

CPC General Secretary Hu Jintao was correct in acknowledging that the reform and opening up initiated by the Party itself, while lending the CPC tremendous vigor, has also put the Party in the face of many new tasks and tests not seen before.

CPC leaders have found a need for the Party to "advance with the times". It has to in order to provide direction for the most dynamic and complex socio-economic transition on earth. That is why Hu called on the Party to improve itself "in the spirit of reform and innovation".

The Party-wide soul-searching project aimed at "keeping CPC members' advancement", reflects the Party leaders' appreciation of the significance of leading by example. The large-scale training programs on the Party leadership's drawing-board, as well as its vow to redouble efforts for preventing and punishing corruption are essential for the Party's ability to offer respectable real-life examples. Negative examples set by morally corrupt members have seriously damaged the 73-million-member Party's collective image and poisoned its relationship with the public.

Intra-Party democracy is an important part in Hu's report, which involves specific ways to improve methods of election and decision-making inside the Party. The Party has conducted a series of experiments on intra-Party democracy at local levels in the past years.

We applaud the moves to advance intra-Party democracy, not only because it is conducive to more sensible strategies for national development, but also because of Hu's proposal to bring wider democracy through expanding democracy inside the Party.

(China Daily 10/18/2007 page9)