BREAKING NEWS

At China party congress, allegiance trumps reform

BEIJING - As the senior Communist Party official in one of China's most prosperous regions, Wang Yang is often cast as an agent of change, a potential force for economic and even political reform should he gain promotion to the party's highest rung later this week.
But the chief of the southern province of Guangdong appears to be distancing himself from that role while attending the party congress that will usher in China's once-in-a-decade top leadership transition.
When Wang spoke to reporters on Friday, he stuck to a well rehearsed script that could have come from any apparatchik.