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`Rampant corruption' widening China's class gap

China is experiencing a greater class division between rich and poor because of widespread government corruption and because that country's leadership is unwilling to push for political reform, a Chinese expert on the Cultural Revolution said yesterday.

Song Yongyi (宋永毅), a librarian and specialist in the history of the Cultural Revolution at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA), said the US had cast doubt on the ability of Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) to introduce political reforms given the Chinese bureaucracy's involvement in corrupt conduct, making it difficult for any top-down reform to take place.

Song was speaking at a forum organized by the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy on the legacy of the Cultural Revolution and its implications for today's leadership.

Song said the division between Chinese Communist Party (CCP) cadres and the public was widening. This was reflected in increasing numbers of protests by workers and peasants; 86,000 cases were reported last year, he said.

"The entire bureaucratic system is involved in rampant corruption. It's more difficult to be a clean-handed official than a corrupt one. That's why the Hu government seldom talks about the achievements of the CCP; rather, he now mentions anti-corruption all the time," Song said.

With economic development shaping as China's primary goal, Song said many elements of communist and socialist thought that were prominent in the Cultural Revolution era are barely noticeable today, and have been replaced by nationalism and capitalism.

But even nationalistic Chinese are not as determined as they sound if opportunities to advance their lot emerge, he said.

"These so-called extremist youths actually only talk about revolution. They can on the one hand scold the United States, particularly during the mistaken bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, but on the other hand still eagerly apply for visas to study in the US," Song said.

Song was imprisoned during the Cultural Revolution for five-and-a-half years at the age of 21 for organizing an underground reading group and directing adverse comments at the authorities. He was jailed again for six months while on a 1999 trip to China to collect materials on the Cultural Revolution.
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