Beijing (CNN) -- Chinese President Hu Jintao, set to begin handing over power to his successor, warned Thursday that a failure to deal with corruption could bring down China's ruling Communist Party and the state it controls. Hu was speaking at the party's 18th National Congress in Beijing, a key meeting of top officials that will usher in a new set of leaders of the world's most populous nation. After a decade in power, Hu is expected to hand over the party's top job to Vice President Xi Jinping. "If we fail to handle this issue well, it could prove fatal to the party, and even cause the collapse of the party and the fall of the state," Hu said of corruption during his speech at the start of the congress in the Great Hall of the People in the heart of the Chinese capital.
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Thousands of delegates gather in Beijing for the meeting
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The key meeting follows a year beset by scandal for the party
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Four Tibetans set themselves on fire, the Tibetan government in exile says
Dozens of Tibetans are reported to have set themselves ablaze in the past 18 months to express their unhappiness with @placeholder rule.