Primacy of The Party $

IN THE 1980S CHINA'S REFORMIST LEADERSHIP TRIED to keep top posts in the ruling Communist Party separate from those of the government. That campaign reversed a tradition established by no less a figure than Mao Zedong, who served simultaneously as party chief and head of state from 1954 to 1959. Now the pendulum seems headed back toward the direction of double dipping -- and a reconsolidation of official power in party hands.

At the close of the 17-day National People's Congress now under way, Jiang Zemin, 67, the current party general secretary, is scheduled to become the fifth President of the People's Republic. Some observers expect that example to spread down the ranks. Coincidentally, when Jiang takes over from retiring Yang Shangkun, 86, it will mark the first postrevolutionary Chinese government without a single prominent veteran of the famed 1934-35 Long March led by Mao. The passage of time has made that separation at last irreversible.