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China resists push to political reform
Sydney Morning Herald - October 28, 2010
John Garnaut, Beijing – The Chinese Communist Party has dealt another blow to hopes that it might soon open itself to greater accountability, with a commentary in the People's Daily attacking "pompous and empty slogans" about political reform.
The commentary, on the front page of the party's main mouthpiece newspaper yesterday, is a riposte to growing demands from liberal sections of the party and from the media that reforms are urgently needed to address China's mounting social and economic challenges.
"The idea that China's political
reform is seriously lagging behind its remarkable economic development
and achievements is not only contrary to the law of objectivity but also
to the objective facts," it said.
It is in stark contrast
to comments by the Premier, Wen Jiabao, who has called for political reform
at least five times in 10 weeks. It also strikes against the symbolism
of the Nobel peace prize awarded to Liu Xiaobo, who is serving an 11-year
jail sentence for his role in organising Charter 08, a manifesto for political
reform.
Government sources say Mr Liu's prize is more threatening to the party than even the unrest it has faced in Xinjiang province, because Mr Liu is an ethnic Han Chinese and his message appears peaceful and reasonable.
There are signs the party's propaganda apparatus believes its blunt denunciations of awarding the prize to a "criminal" may not be working. Changing tactics, the State Council Information Office yesterday denounced Mr Liu as a man who seeks fame but has a weak character and looks down on Chinese people.
The online article said: "In 1989 when Liu Xiaobo was arrested by public security [for activism at Tiananmen Square] a staff member recalls that after his interrogation had finished he suddenly kneeled down on the ground and tightly grasped the staff member's leg – begging with tears flowing and a runny nose – saying 'I really know I'm wrong, I don't want to be in jail, you must help me'."
Mr Wen's comments had emboldened several media outlets to call for political reform. "Without reforming the political system, we cannot guarantee the benefits that economic reform brings, nor will we be able to continue to push ahead with reforms to the economic system and social reform will also fail," said an editorial in the newspaper Economic Observer, on October 22.
It said political reform was needed to solve "problems associated with excessive concentration of power not subject to supervision".
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