China's Xi rides high hopes ahead of presidency

LUOTUOWAN VILLAGE, China (AP) — China's fawning state media, jaded social media commentators and even poor corn and cabbage farmers agree: New Communist Party chief Xi Jinping is off to a good start.

"General Secretary Xi doesn't put on any airs. He talks like an ordinary person," said 69-year-old farmer Tang Rongbin. The new leader visited Tang's sparse, dimly lit farmhouse in Luotuowan village in December, bearing gifts of cooking oil, flour and a blanket.

Xi has styled himself as an economic reformer, an iron-fisted graft-buster, a staunch nationalist and a no-frills man-of-the-people — spurring expectations for change. But as he prepares to be appointed to the largely ceremonial role of president, pressure will be growing on him to deliver.

China faces rising public anger over endemic corruption, a burgeoning rich-poor gap and the degradation of the country's air, soil and waterways. Slower economic growth and territorial disputes, especially with Japan, add to the tension.

Mounting protests over environmental issues, land seizures and high-handed officialdom point to the underlying social discontent. Days before the party conclave that brought Xi to power last year, thousands of protesters in the eastern city of Ningbo faced off against riot police outside government offices, calling on officials to halt a chemical plant expansion.

"I think there has been a revolution of rising expectations," said Willy Lam, an expert on party politics at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. "People realize they can get away with even demonstrations to make their wills heard."

Joining the clamor for change this past week were dozens of prominent intellectuals who signed a petition urging the government to ratify an international treaty on protecting human rights and the rule of law. Also, a group of about 100 parents of gays and lesbians urged lawmakers to legalize gay marriage.

The annual session of the national legislature, which opens Tuesday, will complete the once-a-decade handover of power that began in November when Xi and his leadership team assumed the top positions in the Communist Party. At the end of the session, Xi will take the title of president from his predecessor as party leader, Hu Jintao.

Deputies to the National People's Congress will rubber-stamp appointments of senior officials to the State Council, or Cabinet, to run economic and foreign policies; Xi and other party leaders finalized the personnel changes at a closed-door meeting last week. The No. 2 party leader, Li Keqiang, will become premier, the country's top economic official.

A separate meeting of the government's top advisory body held its opening session Sunday, with its chairman promising to support the new leadership.

The meetings of the legislature and the advisers, which will wrap up in mid-March, give the Xi administration a high-profile platform to lay out policies to build the prosperous, strong and fairer society he has talked about in his public appearances.

Xi came to power in the wake of a scandal that exposed infighting and corruption in the highest reaches of the party. Exuding a confidence and ease lacking in the remote, wooden Hu, Xi has seized on the public's disgust over graft and its hopes for national greatness to rally support for his leadership.

"He certainly took challenges and made them opportunities," said Cheng Li, an expert on Chinese politics at the Brookings Institution in Washington. "He turned them around into great expectations for him, and great hope."

Xi visited an early testing ground for the market reforms that have transformed China into the world's No. 2 economy to align himself with reform in broad terms, though he has given no indication of the changes he wants to make.

He stopped off at Luotuowan, 350 kilometers (200 miles) southwest of Beijing, and other farming villages to show his concern for those struggling to get by. And he has played to nationalist sentiments, taking a hard line against Japan in a long-festering territorial dispute, and touring military units to show his commitment to national defense.

Xi has disappointed some who had hoped for greater political freedom. Though he has espoused the virtues of constitutional government and the rule of law, dissidents continue to be harassed and a crackdown on self-immolation protests in Tibetan areas has only intensified.

It is fighting graft that Xi has made the signature campaign of his first three months — a popular campaign that so far featured more symbolism than action.

He launched a drive to cut out red carpets, motorcades and other official extravagance. State media touted that he preferred simple meals over the usual banquets leaders are given while on inspection tours. He has vowed to target corruption at high and low levels of power — both the "tigers" and the "flies."

So far, it's mostly flies that have been swatted. A slew of lower-level officials have been punished after revelations they were keeping mistresses or amassing multiple unaccounted-for properties. Its highest-level victim has been a deputy provincial party chief suspected of influence peddling and dodgy real estate deals.

Many politically minded Chinese aren't convinced that Xi will take the painful steps needed to root out deeply embedded corruption. Eliminating graft would require an overhaul of the patronage-based political culture and restraining the party's unchecked power.

"Will it be like the past when there was great determination expressed in speech, but ultimately no effective efforts followed to control corruption?" said Ren Jianming, an anti-corruption expert at prestigious Tsinghua University in Beijing. "We haven't seen much in terms of specific measures."

Some Chinese want the party to allow its anti-corruption watchdogs to operate independently, and to require officials to declare assets publicly. A system in place since 2010 requires some officials to report income, real estate holdings and other wealth to their superiors — not the public — but that has done little to stanch graft. A few areas in Guangdong have recently been named as testing grounds for public asset declaration.

Still, resistance to full disclosure is high within the bureaucracy and perhaps even the leadership. Bloomberg News reported in June last year that Xi's extended family has amassed assets totaling $376 million, though it said none was traced to Xi himself.

"I believe that Xi should take the lead," said Wang Yukai, an anti-corruption expert at the Chinese Academy of Governance, which trains provincial and ministerial-level civil servants. "Politburo Standing Committee members also need to declare information about their spouses and children. This will pave the way for future declarations."

Many experts advocated an asset declaration mechanism when they attended a meeting called by Wang Qishan, the party's new anti-corruption agency chief, in late November, according to Ren, who was one of the participants. Ren said Wang noted that more research needed to be done but otherwise stayed noncommittal.

"There's now a lot of public expectation about anti-corruption work, and as the leading cadre in charge of this work, he must remain calm and rational," Ren observed. "It's easy to raise public expectations, but if you're unable to meet them, then you'll end up disappointing everyone."

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China's first lady sparks homegrown fashion frenzy

BEIJING (AP) — New Chinese first lady Peng Liyuan's choice of attire has sparked a flurry of excitement over an independent homegrown label, an unusual phenomenon in a country where political figures are more frumpy than fashionable and wives usually shy away from the spotlight.

Images of Peng, 50, stepping off a plane arm-in-arm with her husband President Xi Jinping in Moscow on Friday have circulated widely on the Chinese Internet, prompting praise of her style as understated and sophisticated.

Eagle-eyed fashion-savvy bloggers identified the leather handbag she carried and smart, double-breasted black trench coat she wore as items designed by Guangzhou-based label Exception. The brand has been described as one of China's leading independent labels whose simple but unique designs stand out in an industry dominated by Western copycats.

"First ladies are ambassadors of the culture and the design and of the soft power of a country. I'm glad that she chose to wear Chinese and take up that role of spokesperson for Chinese design here," said Hong Huang, publisher of the fashion magazine iLook and one of the most popular microbloggers in China.

Hong said it was too early to tell if Peng's high-profile public appearance signaled that she would be playing a more significant role in Chinese politics than her predecessors, who — unlike many of their Western counterparts — have been largely unseen. "It's good that finally China has a very pretty, very beautiful first lady and she can hopefully speak up for a lot more and complement whatever Xi wants to say, in a way, like all first ladies do."

Online retailers have sought to associate their products with what news portals are terming the "Peng Liyuan style," with searches for those key words resulting in lists of handbags and trench coats, many of which did not even resemble the items she wore. Heavy online traffic to Exception's website has caused it to crash since Friday, with it loading only sporadically on Monday.

The impact Peng, a celebrated performer on state television, is having on fashion bears some similarity to trends sparked by Britain's duchess of Cambridge, the former Kate Middleton, who helped bring Brazilian-born designer Issa to the world's attention before her marriage to Prince William. American first lady Michelle Obama has also lent cachet to designer Jason Wu by wearing a gown he custom-made to last month's inauguration.

For its part, Exception appears to be gauging its next move. Chinese politics is a traditionally secretive world and the company risks sparking a backlash by associating itself too publicly with the wife of the head of state.

Some of the more conservative among the Communist Party might frown upon the commercialization of the first lady's image or criticize such attention as being reflective of an excessively materialistic society.

Exception was founded in the mid-nineties by a couple who shared a love of design and the rock band The Ramones, according to Hong. Chief executive Mao Jihong, one of the co-founders, could not be reached on his cellphone. The label has expanded to become a high-end brand with nearly 100 stores and retail counters in China.

Company spokeswoman Tan Yijia, reached in the company's Guangzhou headquarters, said she could not immediately confirm that the pieces Peng wore on the trip were made by the label. The city's quality supervision bureau, however, said on its official microblog site that it has confirmed that Peng's outfit was made by Exception.

Despite Exception's public silence, commentators in China's fashion world are celebrating the attention on the label and, more significantly, the rise of the profile of a popular first lady.

"It's the first time that China's first lady appears like a modern woman. I think she dressed very well, with taste and confidence," said Zhang Yu, editor of China's Vogue magazine. "After so many years, we finally have a first lady who can represent us so appropriately. I think it is a landmark event."

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Associated Press researcher Flora Ji contributed to this report.

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In China's shadow, Gitmo Uighurs languish on Palau

KOROR, Palau (AP) — Ahmat Abdulahad can't help but laugh at the irony of his predicament.

He and five other Chinese Muslims released from America's Guantanamo military prison in 2009 thought they would be living on this remote island for a few months, maybe a year.

But more than three years later, they are still in Palau, and the patience — and funding of this poor nation — is running out. The government has cut Abdulahad's monthly stipend, so he can't pay his bills, not even those from the Palau Power Utility Corp., where he works as a night watchman. So he and his family, inadvertent inhabitants of one of the most beautiful islands in the Pacific, are learning to make do without electricity.

Palau has become a prolonged stopover in what is now a 12-year odyssey for a half dozen men from China's ethnic Uighur minority. They were swept up in Afghanistan as suspected terrorists, held without trial in Guantanamo for more than eight years, then became a cause celebre for Guantanamo opponents in the U.S., who saw them as hapless victims of the anti-terrorism effort and the circumvention of due process in the name of national security.

Now, all but one of them — who quietly managed to make his way to Turkey to join his wife a few months ago — remain stuck on Palau because no one else will take them.

"We are like the pieces in a chess game," Abdulahad, who is 42, said at a small, drab apartment building by the sea where three of the men live with their wives and children. He wears a prosthetic limb because he lost part of his left leg in the air raid when he was captured. "They have played us like that all these years."

Both the men and Palau's president say pressure from China, which says they are terrorists despite their release, is making it impossible for them to find refuge anywhere else. And having met a U.S. federal court order to release them from Guantanamo, U.S. government interest in finding them a permanent home appears to have dried up — though officials say they are doing all they can.

"It's no secret China is very angry with Palau because of the resettlement," President Tommy Remengesau said in a recent interview with The Associated Press, one of his first since taking office in January. "It doesn't take a blind man not to notice that nobody wanted to take these men. The pressure was there from the beginning and the pressure continues to be there. Nobody will be open enough to say that they welcome the Uighurs because of that pressure."

China's Foreign Ministry and Public Security Ministry did not respond to requests for comment.

The Uighurs come from Xinjiang, an isolated region of western China that borders Afghanistan, Pakistan and six Central Asian nations. They are Turkic-speaking Muslims who say they have long been repressed by the Chinese government. Many want Xinjiang to become independent, and in recent years, some have staged bombings and other attacks, mostly against police, government and military targets.

China considers Uighurs held in Guantanamo to be terrorists and has demanded they be repatriated. But since they would almost certainly face imprisonment or even torture if sent back to China, other countries had to be found. The U.S. refused to grant them asylum. Nearly a dozen now live in Albania, Bermuda, El Salvador and Switzerland. Three remain in custody at the U.S. Navy facility in Cuba.

Palau, a country of 20,000 people that relies heavily on the United States for defense and aid, agreed to take six Uighurs on a temporary basis. The former U.S. trust territory, which became independent in 1994, didn't have much to lose. It is one of the few countries that have diplomatic relations with Taiwan, instead of Beijing, and to sweeten the deal, Washington promised $600,000 to help pay for the men's stay.

But Palau says it has done enough.

"The funds have run out. My government is not in a financial situation to deal with them here," Remengesau said. "Culturally it just doesn't fit. Their religion is different from 99 percent of the people of Palau. It hasn't been an entirely stable situation for us. They're not happy. If they had their choice, they would rather be somewhere else."

Even Palau has felt Beijing's wrath, he said, noting that construction of a beachfront resort being developed by Chinese investors abruptly stopped as soon as the Uighur deal was announced. It is a major eyesore, boarded up and vacant, along the main street of Koror, Palau's biggest town, and just a short walk from a bustling hotel built by Taiwanese developers.

Former President Johnson Toribiong, who was voted out of office in November in part because of allegations that he misused the funds intended for the Uighurs, said he never intended for Palau to be a final destination.

"I assumed that I would be able to take care of them and by the end of my term find them a permanent place to go to," he said.

Last month, Palau's government confirmed that one of the men, Adel Noori, had left the island. According to a local newspaper, Noori made his way to Turkey via Japan. Officials in Palau and Washington say they cannot comment because of security concerns.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said the United States is working diligently to seek permanent homes for the remaining Uighurs and is "coordinating closely with Palau on matters related to the remaining individuals temporarily resettled there."

But officials on Palau say they are not even sure who to contact in Washington. Special envoy Daniel Fried, who negotiated the Palau deal and was in charge of finding placements for cleared detainees at Guantanamo, was transferred to a new job in January. No replacement has been named, which has been widely seen as more evidence that President Obama's zeal to close Guantanamo — a major campaign promise before his election in 2008 — has waned under congressional opposition.

"We need a timetable, and a plan of action. That's where the frustration comes," Remengesau said. "We are looking for a happy ending. These are human beings. They deserve respect."

For now, the five Uighur men eke by, most working as security guards and making about $500 a month, which is about the poverty level even by Palauan standards. Prospective employers are reluctant to hire them, and if they speak English at all, it is mostly what they picked up in prison. The only other Muslims on Palau are a small number of Bangladeshis.

"When we were released we were very happy," said Abdulghappar Abdulrahman, another of the Uighurs. "But now it is like being in Guantanamo again."

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Associated Press writers Matthew Pennington in Washington, D.C., and Jonathan Kaminski in Olympia, Wash., contributed to this report.

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China's new leadership faces myriad challenges

BEIJING (AP) — China named the Communist Party's No. 2 leader, Li Keqiang, premier on Friday as a long-orchestrated leadership transition nears its end, leaving the new leaders to confront uneven economic growth, unbridled corruption and a severely befouled environment that are stirring public discontent.

The rubber-stamp legislature endorsed Li for the post, voting 2,940 in favor with one opposed and six abstaining. A day earlier, the legislature similarly appointed Xi Jinping to the ceremonial post of president, making him China's pre-eminent leader following his ascent last November to head the Communist Party and the military.

Though the outcome of the legislative session was a foregone conclusion, it's the result of years of fractious behind-the-scenes bargaining. They hail from different factions: Li Keqiang (pronounced lee kuh chahng) is a protege of the now-retired President Hu Jintao while Xi Jinping (pronounced shee jin ping) is the son of a revolutionary veteran with backing among party elders.

After Li's selection was announced, he and Xi shook hands and smiled for photographers in the Great Hall of the People. Evidence of their and their patrons' ability to forge consensus will be seen Saturday when appointments to the Cabinet and other top government posts are announced.

The son of a revolutionary veteran, Xi cuts an authoritative figure with a confidence and congeniality that was lacking in his predecessor, the aloof and stiff Hu. New Premier Li, from a low level officials' household, has appeared to be a cautious administrator, like Hu, and has not been associated with particular policies on his rise.

Together, Xi and Li now steer a rising global power beset with many domestic challenges that will test their leadership. Chief among them are a sputtering economy that's overly dominated by powerful state industries.

Chinese leaders want to nurture self-sustaining growth based on domestic consumption and reducing reliance on exports and investment. Consumer spending is rising, but not as fast as Beijing wants, which has forced the government to support an economic recovery with spending on public works and investment by state companies.

"If the official data is to be believed, China has been moving in the wrong direction for the past decade - towards 'more investment, less consumption,'" wrote Standard Chartered economists Stephen Green and Wei Li in a research note. "This could create problems."

An increasingly vocal Chinese public is expressing impatience with the government's unfulfilled promises to curb abuses of power by local officials, better police the food supply and clean up the country's polluted rivers, air and soil.

"What do ordinary people care about? Food safety, and smog if you are in a big city, and official corruption," said the prominent Chinese author and social commentator Murong Xuecun, the pen name of author Hao Qun. "They just want to have a peaceful, stable and safe life. To have money and food, and live without worry of being tortured, or having their homes forcefully demolished."

"The entire country is watching for Xi's next step," the writer said.

Wu Xiangdong, chairman of a wine company in central Hunan province and one of the congress delegates who poured out of the vast, ornate Great Hall of the People after Friday's vote, said expectations also were high for Li, the new premier.

"We are very excited and look forward to the premier and the new generation of leaders to be better able to work on the economy, food safety, the environment and improving social equality," Wu said.

Xi's accession marks only the second orderly transfer of power in more than six decades of Communist Party rule. Underlining that transition, after the result of Thurday's vote was announced, the 59-year-old Xi bowed to delegates and turned to his predecessor, Hu. The two shook hands and posed for photos.

Governing China is often plodding as leaders, none of them politically strong enough to prevail individually, forge consensus with their colleagues in the collective leadership.

In some intriguing signs of the new leadership's direction, the congress on Friday appointed as supreme court president Zhou Qiang, a provincial party secretary with a reputation as a progressive and a former aide to a well-known legal reformer. On Thursday, another liberal-minded reformer and a close ally of Hu, Li Yuanchao, was named vice president, breaking with the practice of recent years because he is not in the party's seven-member ruling inner sanctum.

Early indications of the new government's priorities came in a policy program delivered during last week's opening of the legislative session. It pledged to clean up the country's environment, fight pervasive graft and official extravagance and improve welfare benefits for the poor.

The report promised to give private companies a fairer chance to compete, but did not say how Beijing would deal with big state companies controlling most of China's industries that economists have warned need to be curbed in order to preserve future growth. Many experts fear the government will be too hamstrung by powerful interest groups, linked to state industries, to be able to make these changes. But few doubt the urgency of the reform that's needed.

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China's leaders move to fill top government posts

BEIJING (AP) — The Chinese Communist Party's No. 2 leader was confirmed Friday as premier, tasked with addressing a slowing economy and defusing public anger over corruption, pollution and a growing gap between rich and poor.

China's rubberstamp legislature appointed Li Keqiang to the premiership as a long-orchestrated leadership transition neared its end. Final touches take place Saturday with selections of vice premiers, a central bank governor and finance and other ministers, and the legislature wraps up on Sunday.

Party chief Xi Jinping was appointed Thursday to the ceremonial post of president, completing his ascension as China's pre-eminent leader after being promoted last November to head the Communist Party and the military.

Though the outcome of the legislative session was a foregone conclusion, it's the result of years of fractious behind-the-scenes bargaining. They hail from different factions: Li Keqiang (pronounced lee kuh chee-ahng) is a protege of the now-retired President Hu Jintao while Xi Jinping (pronounced shee jin ping) is the son of a revolutionary veteran with backing among party elders.

Xi cuts an authoritative figure with a confidence and congeniality that was lacking in his predecessor, the aloof and stiff Hu. New Premier Li, from a mid-level officials' household, has appeared to be a cautious administrator, like Hu, and has not been associated with particular policies on his rise.

Evidence of their and their patrons' ability to forge consensus will be seen Saturday when appointments to the Cabinet and other top government posts are announced.

As China's top economic official, Li faces politically fraught challenges in keeping growth strong and incomes rising.

China's leaders say they want more sustainable growth based on domestic consumption and technology instead of trade and investment. They have lowered annual growth targets to emphasize the shift. But consumer spending is rising only slowly, which has forced Beijing to keep pumping money into investment to support a sluggish economic recovery.

"If the official data is to be believed, China has been moving in the wrong direction for the past decade - towards 'more investment, less consumption,'" wrote Standard Chartered economists Stephen Green and Wei Li in a research note. "This could create problems."

Reformers say communist leaders have to curb state companies that dominate industries from energy to telecoms to banking, and encourage free-market competition or growth could sink to 5 percent or lower by 2015, raising the risk of job losses and unrest. That will require Li, who has shown little appetite for confrontation, to challenge politically powerful corporate bosses.

China's leadership is consensus-oriented, so governing the country is often sluggish business because none of the leaders are politically strong enough to prevail independently.

Wu Xiangdong, chairman of a wine company in central Hunan province and one of the congress delegates who poured out of the vast, ornate Great Hall of the People after Friday's vote, said expectations were high for Li, the new premier.

"We are very excited and look forward to the premier and the new generation of leaders to be better able to work on the economy, food safety, the environment and improving social equality," Wu said.

The National People's Congress endorsed Li for the post with a vote of 2,940, with three opposed and six abstaining.

In some intriguing signs of the new leadership's direction, the congress on Friday appointed as supreme court president Zhou Qiang, a provincial party secretary with a reputation as a progressive and a former aide to a well-known legal reformer. On Thursday, another liberal-minded reformer and a close ally of Hu, Li Yuanchao, was named vice president, breaking with the practice of recent years because he is not in the party's seven-member ruling inner sanctum.

The new government will be expected to carry out promises outlined in a policy program delivered last week, including cleaning up the country's environment, fighting graft and improving the social safety net.

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Associated Press writer Joe McDonald contributed to this report.

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China's Xi to be named president, capping his rise

BEIJING (AP) — China's new leader Xi Jinping is capping his rise by adding the largely ceremonial title of president in an expected vote Thursday by the rubberstamp national legislature.

His elevation to the presidency will give him the last of the three titles held by his predecessor, Hu Jintao.

The move was expected after Xi was named head of the Communist Party and chairman of its military, positions of true power, last November in a once-a-decade handover to a new group of leaders that has been years in the making.

The National People's Congress gathered Thursday in Beijing's Great Hall of the People for the vote for president, vice president and additional key positions.

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