Political Reform “Inevitable” in China

March 1st, 2008 by Anna Martin,Asia calling

A newly published report by China’s top training centre for government officials has said that the “backwardsness of the political system is affecting economic progress”.

It puts forward a number of ideas for reforming the country’s political system including increasing freedom of expression and religion.

It’s yet another sign that some of those within the government’s top ranks are pushing hard for reform.

But as always, trying to figure out when reforms will take place and in what form, is like trying to predict the weather.

Anna Martin takes a look for Asia Calling.

As soon as President Hu Jintao’s delivered his speech at last year’s 17th Communist Party Congress, local and foreign analysts were tearing it apart, searching for a hint of the Party’s plans for the future.

Certain key words and phrases were counted.

The word “democracy‿ appeared 60 times, followed closely by “Socialism with Chinese characteristics‿ which was mentioned 52 times.

Hong Kong based Democracy campaigner, Thomas Sun Kong Yan says the speech indicated a small, but important, change.

“I doubt they know the real meaning of democracy but at least they don’t see democracy as a bad word or something that they have to “deal‿ with.”

Now, the release of a new 366 page report by the country’s Central Party School, has sparked a fresh round of discussion.

The Central Party School is a training ground for the government’s top officials.

The report is one of several recent publications from well-known institutions and people which have called for a reform of the political system.

Beijing Insitute of Technology professor, Hu Xingdou, says he thinks it signals a power shift within the Party.

“I think that there are many open-minded people in the government who want positive reform, who want to push for progress. There are also a number of conservatives, but they are gradually becoming more passive.”

The report says that corruption among Party and top officials, and a growth in democratic consciousness within Chinese citizens, is making the need for reform more urgent.

It goes on to say that political change is necessary to support economic reforms.

This is something which Hu Xingdou strongly agrees with.

“Political system reform has to take place, otherwise corruption, the monopolisation of power, the increasing gap between rich and poor, and falling morality standards may cause social instability and destroy all the economic achievements.”

Other China watchers say that this drive for reform from some of the country’s elites is already being played out in small “democratic‿ experiments across the country.

American Sidney Rittenburg spent 36 years in China and is said to have the ear of certain senior Party officials.

“There have been very interesting experiments now with different forms of local elections. For example there are now some 200 towns where the full party membership is electing the Party secretary and the public is being consulted on who is elected, and the candidates run on platforms. They say if I’m elected, I’ll do so and so.”

But Rittenburg, says these reforms won’t amount to much without real freedom of expression.

He says this is not only affecting local elections, but it’s also a major problem for larger government meetings.

There’s been much talk about democratising the Communist Party, by allowing members to comment on policy before it’s passed.

But Rittenburg says that, at the end of the day, members are still expected to think in line with the Party’s Central Committee.

“Well if everybody’s got to be unified then how are you going to have a really free expression inside the party on policy, either new or existing policy? And actually party members typically do not have freedom to express inside party meetings, opinions that differ from the established opinions of the leadership.”

The Central Party School report states that freedom of the press is an “inevitable trend.‿

Hu Xingdou agrees that many of the problems discussed in the Central Party School report could be helped by a loosening of media controls.

“The media has to be more open so that it can reveal corruption, and effectively monitor the behaviour of the government, to help reach the goal of building a corruption-free society. A more open media is at the core of political system reform. And it’s the easiest to do – it doesn’t require the government to DO anything, in fact it requires them to stop doing something.”

Sidney Rittenburg argues that this is one area that is also already seeing some change.

He points to the new provincial head in Guangdong, Wang Yang, who has apparently taken pressure off some of Guangdong’s local media.

Rittenburg believes there is still a difficult time ahead for reformists within the Party, but he believes they will ultimately gain the upper hand.

“There are powerful vested interests who do not want any progress that encroaches on their interests. There are powerful corrupt officials who are not prepared to give up there corruption without a fight. But they have a problem, they know that China must carry through real political reform.”