Teaching Comparative

SEZ to SPZ?

Pioneering Chinese City Offers a Peek at Political Ferment

"Local Communist Party leaders [in Shenzhen] have drafted a reform plan that would soften key aspects of China's Leninist political system, authorizing expanded powers for the local legislature, direct elections for some local officials, a more independent judiciary, and greater openness and accountability within the party.

"The changes advocated by Shenzhen's municipal party committee, published last Tuesday in its official newspaper, show that beneath the ice cap of Communist rule in China, debate about democratization is quietly bubbling...

"Some officials and political scientists suggested Shenzhen should be made into a "special political zone," just as Deng had made it a special economic zone...

"The plan... said... that the local People's Congress, or legislature, should be given expanded powers to supervise the executive and that its members should be more directly tied to the people they are supposed to represent...

"The judiciary, according to the plan, should 'independently exercise its rights to judge and supervise.' That would mark a radical departure if put into effect; despite frequent calls for rule by law, the party has retained tight control over the courts.

"Within the party, the plan said, there should be more than one candidate for each office, nominated by the city party committee and voted on by the select standing committee, in contested elections. Traditionally, officials have been named by senior officials and acclaimed by party committees...

"Zhao Dagong, a political commentator who is frequently at odds with the authorities... expressed doubt that the plan would go into effect anytime soon. On the one hand, he said, party officials are unwilling to submit to voters' judgments. On the other, he added, party corruption is so widespread that officials cannot afford to allow public or judicial scrutiny of their actions...
"'Do you think anyone in the party really wants to reform?' a local retired official said. 'Of course not. They are making a lot of money. They don't want to change.'"

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Labels: China, politics

posted by Ken Wedding @ 7:53 AM