SUN
WUKONG A
brush with reform By Wu Zhong,
China Editor
HONG KONG - Over the past few
years, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has advocated
political reform, but he has been laughed at for
"empty talk" without taking any real action.
At last, however, some subtle changes seem
to be taking place toward political
liberalization, following the downfall of Bo Xilai
- said to be the spiritual leader and financial
supporter of the anti-reform new leftists or
conservatives.
Bo was fired last month
from his position as head of the Chinese Communist
Party (CCP) in Chongqing, a western interior
municipality, apparently over problems with his
police chief. He remains a member of the CCP's
politburo.
In China's lunar calendar, the
Qingming festival (which normally
falls on April 4 or 5) is
traditionally a holiday for people to pay tribute
to their deceased families and ancestors. But in
past 30 years, Qingming, also known as the
grave-sweeping festival, has become a politically
sensitive holiday.
On Qingming in 1976,
hundreds of thousands of people flocked into
Beijing's Tiananmen Square to mourn late premier
Zhou Enlai, who had died three months earlier, and
to condemn the "Gang of Four" headed by Mao
Zedong's wife Jiang Qing.
Mao, leader of
the country from 1949 until his death in 1976,
branded the protests as "counter-revolutionary"
and ordered a crackdown. Deng Xiaoping - who later
became paramount leader of China from 1978 to 1992
- was purged as the "black hand" behind this
"Tiananmen Incident". But a couple of years after
Mao's death in September 1976, the CCP had to
vindicate the protest, calling it a "revolutionary
movement", which paved the way for Deng to make
his third and last political comeback.
On
April 15, 1989, shortly after the Qingming
festival, Hu Yaobang, disgraced party general
secretary for his open-mindedness, died. The next
day, a small-scale demonstration took place in
Beijing to commemorate him and demand that the
government reassess his legacy.
A week
later, the day before Hu's funeral, some 100,000
students marched to Tiananmen Square, leading to
the two-month Tiananmen Square protests that were
ended by a bloody crackdown on June 4. The
then-general secretary of the party, Zhao Ziyang,
regarded as a reformist, was purged for tolerating
the pro-democracy protests, and replaced by Jiang
Zemin, handpicked by Deng.
Since then, the
authorities have heightened vigilance at the time
of Qingming in fear that protests might take
place. The name of Zhao Ziyang has become taboo,
not to be mentioned or talked about in public.
This year, Qingming falls on April 4. In
the run-up, a number of web sites dedicated to
mourn Zhao have emerged in cities such as Beijing,
Shenyang, Hangzhou and Hefei, without being
blocked by the "Internet police".
Netizens
have been able to freely visit these websites and
leave messages to mourn and praise Zhao. Even
messages calling for the rehabilitation of Zhao
and for political reform have not been deleted.
Also, more and more people have begun to visit
Zhao's native village in Huaxian in central Henan
province, without being stopped by authorities, as
before, according to Hong Kong media reports. [1]
In major Chinese Internet search engines,
"Zhao Ziyang" is now not completely blocked (as of
the end of last week, at least). On Baidu.com,
China's largest search engine, if one keys in
Zhao's name, over a million pages pop up,
including many of his speeches, (although some are
still blocked).
Many Chinese political
analysts say this shows Beijing wants to test the
water for pushing for more political
liberalization. Their argument is that Zhao was a
firm advocate for political reform, so a
vindication of his verdict on a public consensus
would make it easier to start political reforms.
But some other analysts warn not to
over-interpret the relaxation, saying it is
probably just timed for Qingming, though they fail
to explain why in previous Qingming holidays there
has been no such relaxation of control.
It
is noted that the relaxation of control took place
shortly after Wen reiterated that China needed not
only economic reform but also political structural
reform, especially reform of the leadership system
of the CCP and the government.
Wen warned
at a press conference on March 14, a day before
the announcement of the removal of Bo, after the
conclusion of the annual session of the National
People's Congress, that "now reforms in China have
come to a critical stage ... Without successful
political reform, it's impossible for China to
fully institute economic reform and the gains we
have made in these areas may be lost, and new
problems that popped up in Chinese society will
not be fundamentally resolved, and such historical
tragedies as the Cultural Revolution [1966-1976]
may happen again in China."
Wen said he
had addressed the topic of political structural
reform in China on many occasions in recent years,
giving his views on the topic in full and in
detail. He said his long-standing interest in
political reforms came from "a strong sense of
responsibility". [2]
A week later, the
Financial Times of London reported:
According to people close to
top-level internal party discussions, Mr Wen was
tentatively laying the foundation for a move
that would blow apart the established order in
China and kick-start the political reform he has
agitated for in recent years.
That move
would be the rehabilitation and re-evaluation of
the 1989 Tiananmen Square student protests and
the massacre that followed on June 4, when party
elders ordered the People's Liberation Army to
open fire on unarmed demonstrators.
To
this day the party officially regards the
democracy protests as a "counter-revolutionary
riot" and the entire episode has been
painstakingly scrubbed from the collective
consciousness of the nation.
In calling
for a re-evaluation of the Cultural Revolution,
Mr Wen was in fact signaling his intention to do
the same for Tiananmen in order to finally begin
the healing.
Mr Wen has already
suggested this on three separate occasions in
top-level secret party meetings in recent years,
according to people familiar with the matter,
but each time has been blocked by his
colleagues.
One of the most vehement
opponents of this proposal was Bo Xilai. [3]
Whether Wen had really formally
proposed a revaluation of the June 4 crackdown at
"top-level secret party meetings" is yet to be
independently verified. However, it is almost
certain that Bo would be a strong opponent of such
a move and political reform.
Bo's father
Bo Yibo, a veteran revolutionary, was known as one
of the "eight immortals" in the late 1980s and
early 1990s, who held honorary or no official
positions but practically ruled the country behind
the scenes - their offspring are known as the
princelings.
It was said that Deng, leader
of the "eight immortals", was urged by the others
to purge Hu Yaobang and Zhao Ziyang. After the
June 4 crackdown, unconfirmed reports at the time
had it that the "eight immortals" reached a secret
consensus on a proposal by then-vice president
Wang Zhen to let the princelings gradually take
key posts in the party and state. Wang reportedly
said, "After all, our children are more
trustworthy successors to what we have fought
for," given the lessons of Hu and Zhao. Bo Xilai's
fast rise could be said to have been a result of
this decision, if it indeed existed.
Although both Bo and his father suffered
during the excesses of the Cultural Revolution, Bo
Xilai sought to return to a "worship" of Mao in
his rule of Chongqing - launching massive
campaigns to crack down on gangsters and sing "Red
Songs" (a scene of "singing Red Songs" in
Chongqing today is not much different from those
of the Cultural Revolution), and practicing some
sort of socialism by seeking "common prosperity".
No wonder Bo is regarded by the new
leftists, a minority of Chinese intellectuals
advocating a return to socialism, as their
spiritual leader. It has now been established that
Bo spent public funds of Chongqing to support the
activities of the new leftists.
Kong
Qingdong, a die-hard new leftist and Peking
University professor who openly denounced the
dismissal of Bo as a "counter-revolutionary coup",
admitted in his mini-blog on March 24 that he had
accepted $1 million yuan (US$159,000) from the
Chongqing government to promote the so-called
"Chongqing Model". Detained by secret police for
investigation after Bo's dismissal, Kong was
released five days later after giving back the
money.
Chinese netizens now identify at
least two dozen other new leftists who allegedly
accepted money from Bo to help propagandize the
"Chongqing Model". These claims have not been
confirmed.
It would be strange for a
person like Bo Xilai to support a re-evaluation of
the June 4 crackdown and political liberalization.
Hence, his dismissal has removed a big obstacle to
the possible rehabilitation of June 4 and
political reform.
But Bo was just a highly
visible obstacle on the rough road ahead. There
are hidden obstacles. In the case of the
re-evaluation of June 4, the relaxation of control
on people mourning Zhao Ziyang may be a good
beginning, but there is still a long way to go.
Some retired leaders who rose after the
crackdown, such as Jiang Zemin, or former premier
Li Peng, who still retain certain influence, may
not be happy to see this happen. Even party
officials admit that a major obstacle is the
vested-interest groups inside and outside the
current political establishment.
At the
National People's Congress annual session in
March, reform-minded Guangdong party chief Wang
Yang, who is tipped to move up to the nine-member
Politburo Standing Committee - the power core of
the CCP - pointed out that resistance against the
deepening of reforms often came from central
government departments with vested interest.
"Now enterprises have difficulties, we
[Guangdong government] are considering waiving
some administrative charges, but relevant central
government departments say you cannot take the
lead to do this or other provinces will follow.
And then 'where can we find money'?" Wang said
some effective laws and regulations had also
become obstacles to further forms.
Any
change to such laws and regulations would need the
cooperation of the National People's Congress, but
it has become a house of representatives of
vested-interest groups. [4]
Wang Yang
currently is one of the 25 members of the
politburo. If he feels it is difficult to make
changes in Guangdong - which is under his
jurisdiction and which has always spearheaded
reform and opening up - then it is not hard to
imagine how strong the resistance against changes
is nowadays in other parts of the county. And all
he wants to do is push for some economic or
administrative reforms - not political reform in
the proper sense.
Wen Jiabao may be
sincere and eager to push for political reform,
and he may have the backing of President Hu
Jintao, as many in China believe, but he retires
in less than a year and he may not have time to
start the process.
However, by addressing
the issue repeatedly he seems to have successfully
drawn public attention to it. After the removal of
Bo, discussions about political reform have become
pretty much free, even fashionable, on Chinese
media and among people.
In this way, a
favorable atmosphere is being created for the new
leadership to be endorsed at the party's 18th
congress in October to start making some changes.
This certainly will be the first tough
challenge to the new leadership to be headed by Xi
Jinping and Li Keqiang who are tipped to succeed
Hu and Wen as president and premier, respectively.
Head
Office: Unit B, 16/F, Li Dong Building, No. 9 Li Yuen Street East,
Central, Hong Kong Thailand Bureau:
11/13 Petchkasem Road, Hua Hin, Prachuab Kirikhan, Thailand 77110
