The New York Times reports that there’s a lot more talk about democracy in China nowadays:
Communist Party journals and the state-run news media have published a stream of commentaries by retired officials and academics on “political system reform” and the need for “socialist democracy,” including a bold-sounding call for China to mimic Switzerland’s worker-friendly democratic governing style.
Top leaders have authorized the publication of the pro-democratic political reflections of Lu Dingyi, a Long March veteran who advocated political change before his death a decade ago, two party officials said. Prime Minister Wen Jiabao spoke at length about the value of democracy in a nationally televised news conference last month, and promised steps toward political openness on a recent trip to Japan and South Korea…
Many political analysts are more guarded. Big political events like party congresses, which are held once every five years, can sometimes give rise to relatively unfettered debate that officials stop tolerating after the congress settles on a new slate of leaders. Mr. Hu stirred up expectations of imminent political change around the time he became Communist Party chief in 2002. But since then, they say, he has pursued repeated crackdowns on journalists, lawyers and rights advocates, leading many to conclude that the space for divergent political views in China has shrunk on his watch.
The state-run news media’s newly prolific references to democracy to describe a range of prosaic political actions – like setting up an e-mail address so that the public can comment on pending legislation – so devalue the term that critics of the leadership suspect that Mr. Hu’s goal may be to strip democracy of meaning.
“They want democracy to belong to the party, not to belong to people who oppose the party,” said one retired party official who declined to be identified because top leaders sometimes punish people for discussing elite politics. “If the party can define what democracy is, then it will not be as dangerous.”
Read the whole piece. Left unmentioned is the fact that the upcoming Olympic games in Beijing are leading to all sorts of cosmetic changes. You have to wonder whether substantive reform is likely to benefit or suffer, as China seeks to polish its image in anticipation of the world spotlight. (After all, in at least one case, a nervous regime killed dozens of protesters rather than be ’embarrassed ‘on the olympic stage). Of course, Henry Rowen of the Hoover Institution says that China isn’t due to be ‘partly free’ until 2015, so I guess we ought not get our hopes up.
