Unity before democracy for China's Communists

BEIJING (Reuters) - China has pledged reforms to make the Communist Party more accountable in the face of widespread official corruption, but changes must not come at the expense of the Party's grip on power, a senior official said on Wednesday.

Five days away from announcing a new leadership team to run the world's most populous nation and its fourth-largest economy, the Party has also still not confirmed the method by which its members will select the ruling elite.

"Democracy within the Party is the lifeline of the Party. Likewise, unity is also the lifeline of the Party," Ouyang Song, vice-minister of the Party's Organization Department, told a news conference.

"While expanding democracy within the Party, we must uphold the unity of the Party and we must ensure that all the Party's decisions and resolutions are carried out effectively," said Ouyang, whose powerful department investigates candidates for appointments and promotions.

China's ruling Communist Party is in the midst of its biggest meeting in five years, which will culminate in the selection of a new Central Committee, which has about 200 members, as well as the Party's ruling inner core, made up of just a handful.

President Hu Jintao has pledged expanded internal competition for the posts, but it was unclear what that would mean in practice.

"As for how large is the margin of the competition, that is decided by the election method which is still being drawn up," Ouyang said.

Such moves toward internal competition are part of a campaign against corruption, which the Party has warned could threaten its hold on power and which is a major source of social instability.

Ouyang said some parts of the Party were weak and that several hundred members had been turned over to the courts to face prosecution.

"Some grassroots Party organizations are feeble and lax; a small number of Party members and leading cadres have bad styles of work, ... extravagance and waste, slack attitudes and corruption still remain serious," he said.

But Ouyang added that he was convinced that his Party was the only one fit to lead China, and that despite its shortcomings it remained attractive to the masses.

"People have drawn the conclusion from more than 80 years of the Communist Party's history that only the Communist Party can save China and only the Communist Party can unite the entire Chinese people to achieve development," he said.