Officials and academics, attending a meeting last month to advise senior Chinese leaders, disagreed sharply on how to advance the country's economic and legal reforms, according to minutes of the private discussion leaked last Thursday on the Internet. The group also expressed anxiety about what one official called "unprecedented controversy and dissent" among China's elite.
The high-level forum, which was supposed to remain secret, offered a partial but revealing glimpse into the policy debate among influential people who are considered core supporters of the Chinese Communist Party's market-oriented economic reforms.
Many participants emphasized that they were alarmed by the resurgence of socialist thinkers critical of the lurch toward capitalism. Some said the governing party would face growing social and political instability unless it established genuine rule of law.
The leaked minutes show that even as some foreign governments and academics have touted China's development model, often called the "Beijing consensus," as a path to prosperity for poor countries, the Chinese elite fear that the consensus behind two decades of rapid economic growth is eroding.
"The past two years, the media have been talking a lot about the Beijing consensus; the reality is that there isn't one," Shi Xiaomin (
China's economy has maintained its momentum -- it is expected to expand by more than 9 percent this year -- and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) shows few signs of rolling back its market-oriented policies.
But there is considerable uncertainty about the next stages: How to manage the widening gap between rich and poor, curtail the explosion of rural unrest, tackle endemic corruption and reduce pollution.
Last month, the National People's Congress postponed consideration of a broad property-rights measure that had been expected to become law. And officials have sent mixed signals about efforts to overhaul the state-run financial system and permit foreigners to play a larger role in the once tightly controlled banks and securities firms.
Debate over those issues was the backdrop for the forum, which was convened on March 4 by the China Society of Economic Reform, a research institute run by the State Council. About a dozen officials, senior economists and legal experts took part in the daylong session, which was intended to provide a sampling of candid views to inform government leaders, including Premier Wen Jiabao (
The Web site Huayue Forum, operated by people who are harshly critical of the economic changes, was one of the first to post the full minutes of the session. It was unclear how the site obtained the minutes. A person who took part in the session said in an interview that the minutes were accurate.
A heavily edited transcript of the event was subsequently made available on the Web site of the convener, but that version left out the dialogue on the most delicate issues.
Some at the forum argued that the difficulties China faced today were political and legal rather than economic. The solution to rising social tensions, they suggested, was to put the government and the party on firmer legal footing, while allowing ordinary people a greater say in public affairs.
"My own view is that the period of economic reform has ended," said Li Shuguang (
Li said the rise in social instability indicated that the dominant issue for common people was no longer "poverty of material resources" but "poverty of rights and power." He implied that the leaders should address those concerns with political rather than economic measures.
The most provocative comments at the session were made by He Weifang (
He said the "entire party power structure" violated China's Constitution because it exempted itself from constitutional controls. He said he favored splitting the CCP into rival parties and stripping it of its control of the military.
Excerpts from He's talk attracted the most attention on leftist Web sites and chat rooms, which support the communist government. The excerpts were often presented along with other quotations from the minutes as evidence that a cabal of right-wing government officials and academics was plotting to overthrow the CCP, though the full minutes do not support that contention.
Some participants did criticize what they argued was a tendency among leaders to attribute China's mounting social problems, like the wealth gap, to fast economic growth.
Zhang Weiying (
"Development is harmony," Zhang said.
He added that areas of China that had grown the fastest, opened up the most to foreign investment and given the widest berth to the private sector had higher living standards and narrower gaps in wealth than areas that clung to socialist controls.
He also said strengthening China's ability to compete globally should be a prerequisite for any new government policy, implying that higher taxes or tighter regulation of workers' wages would be a big mistake.
A strong defense of financial reforms was presented by the most senior official at the forum, Xie Ping (謝平), general manager of Central Huijin Investment Co, the state-run company that overseas major banks.
Xie said the sale of minority stakes in state-run banks to foreign investors had engendered "ideological division" and even "accusations of traitorous behavior" against financial officials -- mostly, critics say, because the shares were sold too cheaply.
He defended the recent sale of shares in the Chinese Construction Bank, a state-run behemoth, to Bank of America before the institution obtained an overseas stock market listing. He argued that the US bank would transform the management, ensure transparency and protect the state's interest in the Chinese bank.
"A big bank like the Construction Bank can buy off the China Securities Regulatory Commission with two meals," Xie said. "But they can never buy off Bank of America."
Others present argued, however, that the faster-paced reform did not address the main tensions in Chinese society.
Sun Liping (孫立平), a leading sociologist at Tsinghua University, said the Chinese elite had become more like an oligarchy while the bottom rungs of society were ever more susceptible to populism. He argued that the old nostrum that fast development was good for everyone was useless in the current environment.
"Leftists in our society are saying absurd things," Sun said. "But as elite intellectuals, we cannot deny that they have a solid basis for saying them."
Saudi Arabian largesse is flooding Egypt’s cultural scene, but the reception is mixed. Some welcome new “cooperation” between two regional powerhouses, while others fear a hostile takeover by Riyadh. In Cairo, historically the cultural capital of the Arab world, Egyptian Minister of Culture Nevine al-Kilany recently hosted Saudi Arabian General Entertainment Authority chairman Turki al-Sheikh. The deep-pocketed al-Sheikh has emerged as a Medici-like patron for Egypt’s cultural elite, courted by Cairo’s top talent to produce a slew of forthcoming films. A new three-way agreement between al-Sheikh, Kilany and United Media Services — a multi-media conglomerate linked to state intelligence that owns much of
The US and other countries should take concrete steps to confront the threats from Beijing to avoid war, US Representative Mario Diaz-Balart said in an interview with Voice of America on March 13. The US should use “every diplomatic economic tool at our disposal to treat China as what it is... to avoid war,” Diaz-Balart said. Giving an example of what the US could do, he said that it has to be more aggressive in its military sales to Taiwan. Actions by cross-party US lawmakers in the past few years such as meeting with Taiwanese officials in Washington and Taipei, and
Denmark’s “one China” policy more and more resembles Beijing’s “one China” principle. At least, this is how things appear. In recent interactions with the Danish state, such as applying for residency permits, a Taiwanese’s nationality would be listed as “China.” That designation occurs for a Taiwanese student coming to Denmark or a Danish citizen arriving in Denmark with, for example, their Taiwanese partner. Details of this were published on Sunday in an article in the Danish daily Berlingske written by Alexander Sjoberg and Tobias Reinwald. The pretext for this new practice is that Denmark does not recognize Taiwan as a state under
The Republic of China (ROC) on Taiwan has no official diplomatic allies in the EU. With the exception of the Vatican, it has no official allies in Europe at all. This does not prevent the ROC — Taiwan — from having close relations with EU member states and other European countries. The exact nature of the relationship does bear revisiting, if only to clarify what is a very complicated and sensitive idea, the details of which leave considerable room for misunderstanding, misrepresentation and disagreement. Only this week, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) received members of the European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations