SINGAPORE: China’s economy is showing signs of a rebound. An anti-corruption drive has nabbed several top officials. There is progress on the foreign relations front, like gaining some respect from major powers such as the United States and relaunching a charm offensive in Southeast Asia.

All in all, it’s been a fairly good first year for President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang, the No. 1 and No. 2 leaders of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), analysts say. Their performance since November last year has strengthened their power base and ability to push their agenda at the party’s Third Plenum starting on Saturday, the analysts add.

It helped that they took power on a firmer footing than their predecessors did.

At the 18th Party Congress last November, Xi was handed both the reins of the CCP and the chairmanship of the powerful Central Military Commission (CMC). Hu Jintao, who became party chief in 2002, had to play second fiddle until his predecessor Jiang Zemin relinquished the CMC post in 2004.

As for Li, he is ranked one spot higher than previous premier Wen Jiabao, who was No. 3 in the party.

”Both Xi and Li have done quite well in the first year,” Nottingham University analyst Wang Zhengxu said.

“The transfer of power from the outgoing cohort is much more complete and clear-cut, so Xi and Li have more control over things once they took over.”

And while the Hu-Wen administration was tested by the Sars epidemic - which killed 349 nationwide - in their first year, Xi and Li have been spared anything of similar magnitude.

In the first months of their administration, they pretty much followed what the Hu-Wen team did, including using public relations to raise their profile.

Photos of Xi travelling in a mini-bus instead of a limousine on his first tour outside Beijing, to southern Shenzhen city, were splashed online.

Li hosted an Aids meeting and shook hands with HIV sufferers, taking a leaf from Wen who became the first premier to do so in December 2003.

Like Hu, Xi spearheaded an austerity campaign to cut extravagances such as lavish welcome ceremonies, and launched an anti-graft fight under disciplinary czar Wang Qishan.

Around 10 “tigers” - officials of at least vice-ministerial grade - have been sacked for suspected corruption, with former asset regulatory agency chief Jiang Jiemin topping the list.

Xi’s astute handling of the scandal involving former Chongqing party chief and political star Bo Xilai, who was given a life sentence for taking bribes and abuse of power, also boosted his political clout.

”Xi and Li have quickly garnered fairly strong public support by pushing through campaigns aimed at curbing corruption, reducing government excesses, rectifying the party, and improving governance style,” said Singapore-based analyst Li Mingjiang. “These are notable positive changes in the Chinese political world.”

In international diplomacy, both men have also done creditably. Xi and Li visited 21 countries from March to October this year, compared to the nine trips in the same period by their predecessors.

Relations with the US in particular have improved, say observers.

President Barack Obama’s utterance of Xi’s pet phrase - “new type of major power relations” - at their informal summit in California in June was seen as a coup for China in getting the US to see it as an equal, said Peking University analyst Wang Dong.And last month, while Obama was stuck at home dealing with a US government shutdown, the two Chinese leaders wooed Southeast Asian leaders.

Professor Wang Dong added that the Chinese duo, among other things, had “successfully reassured” Asean countries over their fears of China’s rise and the territorial disputes between Beijing and several Southeast Asian countries.

Under the Xi-Li team, China also gained an advantage in its dispute with Japan over the Diaoyu/Senkaku islands.

Beijing’s dispatch of naval ships and aircraft to patrol the uninhabited isles was met with little resistance from Tokyo.

At home, the Chinese economy, wobbly at the start of the year, showed signs of a rebound in the third quarter, thanks in large part to Li’s “mini fiscal stimulus”, including railway spending and tax cuts. Li also delivered on promises such as cutting red tape.

But there have also been areas of concern, say observers.

Former Tsinghua University professor Patrick Chovanec, now chief strategist at Silvercrest Asset Management, pointed out that the economic rebound was largely fuelled by property speculation and infrastructure investment - tools that Li has publicly frowned on as unsustainable.

Chovanec also said the Shanghai free trade zone, launched on Sept 28 as the new leadership’s testbed for economic and financial reforms, has so far produced few concrete initiatives.

Xi has also shown a conservative political bent, sanctioning crackdowns on microbloggers, gagging academics, and reviving the controversial practice of self-criticism in a party campaign to weed out wayward officials.

And while commendable, the leaders’ first-year performance was helped by a dash of luck, said Professor Kerry Brown of the University of Sydney.

”Handling Bo Xilai was internally tough, but so far this leadership has not had a major test like Sars. It has had no crisis in Tibet or Xinjiang, and no real major issue internationally, so it has had plenty of luck in the first few months,” he said.”We do not yet know what their real response will be if a crisis does happen.”

By arrangement with The Straits Times/ANN