Door to secretive China Congress opens by a crack

By Benjamin Kang Lim and Lindsay Beck

BEIJING (Reuters) - In Mao Zedong's day, the world was not even aware China's ruling Communist Party was holding one of its agenda-setting congresses until the whole event was over.

When the meeting packed up, firecrackers lit up the sky over Beijing and state television announced its great success, with no one outside of the Party's inner circle any the wiser about what went on behind closed doors.

The Mao era is long over, but the Party is still firmly in charge, and with its 17th Congress under way, the door to its secretive meetings is opening -- if only by a crack.

"The Central Committee told delegates to be more open to foreign journalists," said one Congress worker, referring to the Party's 200-strong governing body.

That would allow the Party to show to the world that it was unified and open, the delegate said.

Indeed, over a one-and-a-half day period, a record 34 group discussions, at which delegates gathered to comment on President Hu Jintao's state-of-the-nation report, were open to reporters, and several allowed time for journalists to raise questions.

In a break with form, many interview requests were granted.

But in a system which still guards leadership decisions as state secrets, the moves create more of a theatre of openness than true transparency.