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2 China's democracy debate: The end
is nigh By Kent Ewing
HONG KONG - Let's all savor, while we can,
the remarkable debate over political reform taking
place in China, as it is unlikely to last much
longer. This sustained argument, which has played
out in state media and academic journals over the
past several months, could be brought to an abrupt
halt once this autumn's 17th National Congress of
the Chinese Communist Party has passed.
For now, Chinese leaders do not want to
alienate either side in
the
increasingly heated battle over the country's
political direction, but after they consolidate
their power at the congress, they may very well
change their tune. It would not be the first time
in Chinese politics that a refreshing period of
openness had been followed by heavy-handed
suppression.
Publication this month of two
articles - one a nostalgic tribute to
controversial ex-premier Zhao Ziyang and the other
a harsh criticism of the sluggish pace of
democratic reform for the past 18 years - has
raised the political temperature in Beijing to a
new level. Both articles appeared in China's most
liberal-minded journal, Yanhuang Chunqiu (Spring
and Autumn in China).
The tribute to Zhao,
written by former vice premier Tian Jiyuan, is the
first favorable commentary on his life and work in
the Chinese media since he was ousted as general
secretary of the Communist Party for supporting
the student-led democracy movement that ended in
the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown. Zhao lived
under house arrest until his death in January
2005.
Comparing Zhao's honesty and
simplicity to the greed and corruption that run
rampant in government today, Tian wrote: "During
[Zhao's] tenure, he never bought anything
expensive for his home and office. He wanted
everything simple and did not waste a cent."
The attack on political reform, which is
the journal's cover story, caused an even bigger
stir than Tian's wistful recollections of Zhao.
The article asserts that the reform process has
"severely regressed" since the Tiananmen crackdown
and implies that the present leadership has
betrayed the legacy of late paramount leader Deng
Xiaoping by ignoring his plans for greater
democratization.
With equal boldness, its
author, Wu Min of the Shanxi Provincial Party
School, also suggests that the Communist Party's
"excessive concentration of power" is in large
part responsible for the widespread corruption and
social inequalities now afflicting China.
Without checks and balances on its power,
the professor warns, a corrupt and shortsighted
party could face a downfall similar to that of the
Communist Party in Russia or the Kuomintang, the
Nationalist Chinese government routed by Mao
Zedong in 1949.
"The infinite postponing
of Deng's political-reform blueprint has resulted
in grave consequences," Wu wrote. "Checks and
balances of power are alarmingly lacking ... the
status quo should not be continued anymore. The
longer fundamental, substantial political reforms
are delayed, the more likely unpredictable and
insurmountable social unrest and political crises
are going to occur."
The article's
scathing indictment drew an immediate response
from old-guard conservatives, who struck back the
very next day with an open letter attacking party
leaders for their ongoing romance with capitalism
and calling for a purge of party members who favor
democratization. The letter, addressed to General
Secretary Hu Jintao and the party's Central
Committee, appeared on the website Mao Zedong's
Flag (www.maoflag.net) and was signed by 17
veteran party members. The signatories included
former ministers, retired diplomats, army
officials and prominent academics who collectively
urged the party to end its nearly 30-year love
affair with capitalism and return to
"Marxist-Leninism and Mao Zedong thought".
The letter cites the recent slavery
scandal in Shanxi province - which involved
thousands of people, including children, who have
been tortured and forced to work up to 20 hours a
day in brick kilns - as an example of the evils
that capitalism can bring.
"Our socialist
cause has been severely hindered and lost its
direction," the conservatives wrote. "Frankly
speaking, the current reform model is trying to
replace public ownership with private ownership
and to transform China from a socialist country
into a capitalist country. We're going down an
evil road. The whole country is at an almost
perilous moment."
Continuing on the
current path, the letter warns, will soon produce
a Chinese Boris Yeltsin and lead the party and the
country to ruin. To avoid such a calamitous
result, the authors recommend the expulsion of 2.8
million "capitalists" from the party, which had
72.4 million members as of last year, and the
repeal of China's first law protecting private
property, passed this year.
No doubt
because of the incendiary nature of the letter,
www.maoflag.net was shut down.
Adding fuel
to the political-reform fire, the current issue of
China Newsweek, which has no association with the
similarly named
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