Deng's daughter joins struggle for
Chinese reform By Wang Chu
HONG KONG - With less than two months before
what is expected to be a transformative session of the
Chinese Communist Party Congress, the struggle for power
is intensifying - and the daughter of Deng Xiaoping, the
revered father of economic reform, is weighing in on the
side of the economic and political reformers. Her
message: When Daddy retired, he bowed out and stayed out
of politics. By implication, former president Jiang
Zemin should do the same.
In one corner of the
ring is reformist President Hu Jintao and his ally
Premier Wen Jiabao, urging major economic reforms to
slow the overheated economy and radical reforms of the
Chinese Communist Party (CCP) itself, making it more
accountable, democratic and transparent. In the other
corner is China's "phantom regent," former president
Jiang, who clings to power at the age of 78. He is
chairman of the CCP's powerful Central Military
Commission - the commander in chief. He and his
so-called "Shanghai Clique" especially oppose the
political reforms that would deprive them of influence.
The party congress will be held in September,
but the date has not been announced; many observers
expect it to be late in the month.
Deng Lin, the
oldest daughter of the late paramount leader Deng
Xiaoping, shared her memories of her father (who died in
1997) in an interview on state-run China Central
Television (CCTV) on July 28. Deng was considered the
ultimate pragmatist and economic reformer, responsible
for China's opening up. "He often had breakfast at 8am
and processed documents at 9am. In the early days after
retirement, he read only a few of the stacks of
documents, and he simply quit it later on. I see that he
was sincerely willing to be a man in the street," bowing
out of politics, she recalled. Deng Lin has been a
successful painter, at one time selling her work to
billionaires in Hong Kong.
Deng Lin apparently
cited her father in retirement as an example to suggest
that other retired leaders should not interfere with the
new administration of younger officials. "For another
thing, when [my father] handed over the job, he put his
trust in the successors and let them grow by working on
their own. He believed they would not make progress if
there was intervention. That's why I insist that he's
right in many ways," she said.
These words may
have embarrassed the "regent" Jiang Zemin, who left the
office of the CCP general secretary and the Chinese
president last year but retained command of the armed
forces as head of the military commission. On July 26,
Jiang met with representatives of the troops and made a
public address that was generally interpreted as
endorsing his protege - Shanghai CCP chief Chen Liangyu,
who lashed out at the macro-control policy implemented
by Premier Wen and President Hu. The macro-controls call
for limiting investment in key overheated sectors such
as steel, cement and real estate.
For a long
time, Jiang has been seeking recognition of his robust
health in a bid to maintain his influence. On July 8, he
greeted US National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice by
saying, "You look younger." Perhaps he was expecting a
reciprocal "And so do you" from Rice, but she said
nothing of the sort. In July 2003 when meeting with
British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Jaing said: "They say
I'm still young."
Besides Deng Lin, Beijing
Mayor Wang Qishan is also believed to be joining the
Hu-Wen camp. Recently, Wang demanded that the city host
a frugal Olympics in 2008, and enacted seven
revolutionary regulations to rectify the super-heated
construction industry. While most fence-sitters are
still vacillating between the reformists and the
conservatives, some important figures clearly have
already chosen sides.
Jiang's relations with
Deng family strained August 22 will mark the
birth centennial of Deng Xiaoping, and large-scale
commemorations have been scheduled in Beijing. Some
already have gotten under way, almost four weeks before
his birthdate. Political observers regard such a
high-profile celebration of the reformer Deng as the
latest attempts by President Hu to project Deng's
influence - he is still revered - to contain his
political rival and predecessor Jiang.
According
to an informed source, cracks appear in Jiang's
relations with the Deng family after Deng Xiaoping died
in 1997. The year 2002 marked the 10th anniversary of
Deng's inspection tour of southern China and the fifth
anniversary of his death. During the tour, Deng
successfully pushed through deepening economic reform
amid conservative opposition and doubts.
At that
time, the Deng family looked forward to some memorials.
However, the authorities surprisingly decided to put
aside Deng-related commemorations and focus on the
seventh anniversary of Jiang Zemin's speech concerning
the eight principles regarding Beijing-Taipei relations,
delivered in 1995.
In Chinese political culture,
the fifth and 10th anniversaries are usually considered
more important and meaningful than odd-number
anniversaries, such as the seventh. Jiang was said to be
the string-puller behind the arrangement that elevated
his own address and sidelined Deng. That irritated
Deng's family. As a result, its relationship with Jiang
soon deteriorated.
In fact, after January 2001,
Jiang seldom mentioned the theory of Deng Xiaoping. At a
national meeting on propaganda held that January 10,
then president Jiang concentrated on his self-invented
theory of the "Three Represents" and did not once refer
to Deng. Some observed that Jiang appeared ambitious to
claim credit for China's achievements and elevate
himself to the same levels as Mao Zedong and Deng
Xiaoping. To his satisfaction, the theory of "Three
Represents" was eventually added into the Chinese
constitution early this year. However, his name was kept
out and not linked to it. Some believed that not
mentioning Jiang was the result of intervention by the
new President Hu Jintao, who sought to undermine Jiang's
influence.
(The Three Represents says the CCP
must always represent "the development trend of China's
advanced productive forces, the orientation of China's
advanced culture, and the fundamental interests of the
overwhelming majority of the Chinese people".)
Marked differences existed between Deng and his
successor Jiang. As part of the efforts to commemorate
the deceased leader, the party's official magazine Ban
Yue Tan (China Comment) recently carried an article with
some memories of Deng's visit to Guangdong province 12
years ago. According to accounts by an accompanying
official, Deng sent out orders to the subordinate
governments long before leaving Beijing, in a bid to
keep the visit low-profile and minimize the interruption
to routine work: no specific reporting by officials, no
inscriptions, no media interviews.
In contrast,
when touring the south early this year, Jiang's visit
was as high-profile as possible, all the way. First, he
summoned officials in Guangdong for reporting; a few
senior party and military officials who were supposed to
attend the plenum of provincial People's Congress chose
to accompany Jiang instead. As if to make himself
remembered forever, Jiang left inscriptions for various
projects or construction sites, and his writing can be
found throughout the country. However, sometimes he
wrote the wrong words in the wrong place. For example,
he once left an inscription for a large project in
northern China's Hebei province, but he vowed there to
build a massive university complex. Soon the project was
implicated in unauthorized massive investment and
consequently halted, discrediting the former president
in the eyes of many.
Deng's daughter Deng Lin,
in her interview with the party's main broadcast
mouthpiece CCTV, reaffirmed her father's hands-off
approach after retirement and his strong faith in his
successors. "I think, from every single perspective, he
[was] right in his decision to leave the job entirely to
his successor without unnecessary interference. This
could help speed up the maturity of the younger
generations in the party," Deng Lin said.
Noticeably, she further stressed that Deng
Xiaoping set a positive example in power handover and
injection of new blood to the leadership. In 1989, on
his own initiative, Deng offered to resign as the
chairman of the Communist Party Central Military
Commission. As early as in 1980, Deng had already
proposed to abolish the life term of senior positions of
both the government and the party.
Some China
experts maintain that the remarks from Deng's daughter,
made so close to the upcoming party plenum, puts
pressure on Jiang in his power struggle with Hu. It
remains to be seen which camp will gain the upper hand
in Zhongnanhai, Beijing's seat of power, and how the
agenda of the plenum will be affected on issues of
political and economic reform.
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