Teaching Comparative Government and Politics

Wednesday, September 08, 2010

More reform noises from Wen Jiabao

Yu Jie's book notwithstanding, Premier Wen makes more noises about reform.

Change you can believe in?

CHINA is enjoying its new status as the world’s second-largest economy, but the prime minister, Wen Jiabao, is refusing to relax. During a visit to a southern boomtown he declared that economic gains could yet be lost without reforms to the political system. One official newspaper called his speech one of “extraordinary importance”, but sceptics abound.

Mr Wen’s remarks on political reform were striking. China, he said, had to “resolve the issue of the excessive concentration of unrestrained power” and “create conditions for the people to criticise and supervise the government”. It was necessary, he said, to build a society with “fairness and justness”. Chinese leaders have spoken before about the importance of political reform (while ushering in very little), but Mr Wen’s emphasis was unusual.

This has caused a flurry of excitement in some state-controlled newspapers...

An organiser, Cui Weiping, says participants supported Mr Wen’s views, but some doubted that much would happen. One of Beijing’s most outspoken Wen-sceptics, Yu Jie, says the leaders will try to avoid any disruptive change in the two years remaining before Mr Wen and President Hu Jintao are likely to step down from the ruling Politburo…