Such is the fatuousness and utter boredom of official functions that the only piece of news about the Chinese Communist Party's 90th Birthday bash that excited pundits in Beijing was the no-show of former president Jiang Zemin. Jiang, 84, loves festivities and seeing himself on television. While nine other retired members of the CCP Politburo Standing Committee (PBSC) were on hand at the Great Hall of the People on July 1 to hear President Hu Jintao's 14,000-character address on the party's "brilliance and perspicacity," the octogenarian was nowhere to be seen.

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