Things are starting to stir in China

Whether or not they want to call it Western-style democracy, China's rulers certainly need transparency and accountability in their governance to avoid some unimaginable disaster. This message is coming loud and clear from some levels within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), sections of the media and elements of the bureaucracy. To be sure, these people are not talking about replacing CCP rule. They are simply asking for a measure of freedom and informed decision-making.

This was the message in a recent declaration jointly signed by 13 party elders, who formerly held medium-level posts, urging the CCP leadership that "to allow people to speak out freely will do no harm to the administration." They criticized the closure of the China Youth Daily's weekly supplement Freezing Point as another example of "vicious media control" by the Central Propaganda Department. They maintained that "depriving the public of liberty of speech will bring discord to political and social transition and will cause group confrontation and social unrest."

This is quite a bold declaration, even if it doesn't challenge CCP rule. It suggests that things are starting to stir in China, without meaning to read too much into it in the near future.

Vice-director of the State Environment Protection Administration Pan Yue (潘岳) made a similar point in the context of looming environmental disasters in the country. He reportedly told the newspaper, Southern Weekend, that, "Public good has been encroached upon by certain interest groups as people are not informed and have no channels to express their opinions."

Calling for an "open and sunshine administration," he said that environmental protection was the "best area for experiments in socialist democracy and rule of law," because it was the least politically sensitive and enjoyed public support.

Pan said that individual companies were not the main culprit, it is the system. In other words, "The pollution is now structural." This is borne out by official statistics pointing out that more than 70 percent of China's rivers and lakes are polluted, as is 90 percent of ground water in cities. In that case, the solution doesn't lie simply in introducing open administration in the environmental sector or any other area, even if that were possible. China needs a structural overhaul to build transparency and political accountability across the board. It means that people should be able to change their political leaders periodically if they are not satisfied with their performance.

This doesn't mean that democracies are perfect. What it means is that, unlike in China where communist oligarchs have decided to rule in perpetuity, in democratic countries people get to elect their governments.

That China is suffering a systemic crisis is also borne out by Premier Wen Jiabao's (溫家寶) recent statement. Responding to worsening official statistics about the law and order situation, he reportedly warned that the rampant seizure of farmland for development was one of the main threats to social stability.

Wen acknowledged that: "Some locales are unlawfully occupying farmers' land and not offering reasonable economic compensation and arrangements for livelihoods, and this is sparking mass incidents in the countryside."

And he warned, "We absolutely cannot commit a historical error over land problems," referring obviously to the many farmers' rebellions in the nation's history (including the Communist Party-led revolution.)