Chinese Premier calls for political reforms
BEIJING — Wen Jiabao, entering his final year as China’s premier, yesterday called for structural political reforms to forestall chaos and solidify growth as the nation’s legislature approved a budget aiming to boost domestic consumption in the face of weak demand for exports.
On the final day of its annual session, the legislature also approved revisions to the key criminal procedure law that at least on paper will restrict police powers to secretly detain people, a tactic increasingly used against activists and government critics.
At his annual news conference following the session’s close, Wen repeated vague reform calls, saying they were needed to consolidate the achievements of three decades of economic growth and prevent a repeat of the mass disorder that rocked China during the violent 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution.
“Without a successful political structural reform ... new problems that have cropped up in China’s society will not be fundamentally resolved and such historical tragedies as the Cultural Revolution may happen again,” Wen said.
“I know very well that the reform will not be an easy one. The reform will not be able to succeed without the consciousness, the support, the enthusiasm and creativity of our people,” he said.
The Cultural Revolution, Mao Zedong’s failed experiment in radical egalitarianism, led to the deaths and persecution of millions, upended the nation’s leadership, and fostered broad cynicism about the communist system. China’s leaders, many of whom suffered grave hardships during that period, routinely hold it up as justification for strict political and societal control.
As before, Wen offered no specific proposals, saying reform had to adhere to China’s particular national circumstances and proceed in a “step- by- step manner.” Chinese leaders often define political reform in terms of boosting administrative efficiency, but even those paltry efforts at streamlining have gained little traction against an entrenched bureaucracy and struggle for influence ahead of this fall’s generational leadership transition.
Touching on recent unrest in Tibetan areas, Wen said economic growth was needed to counter sentiments that have prompted more than two dozen Tibetans, including several teenagers, to set themselves on fire to protest China’s suppression of their religion and culture and call for the return of the Dalai Lama.
“We don’t support this kind of extreme acts in disrupting and undermining social harmony. The young monks are innocent. We feel distressed about what they have done,” Wen said.