Communist leaders plan to amend China's Constitution to promote economic development, drawing on the ideology of former president Jiang Zemin (江澤民), official media said yesterday.
The change could ensure Jiang historic status. His ideology, which calls for the party to offer membership to capitalists, might be mentioned in the constitution with those of communist founder Mao Zedong (毛澤東) and Deng Xiaoping (鄧小平), who launched China's economic reforms.
The news reports gave no details of the possible changes. But foreign analysts say they include the communist era's first guarantee of property rights for entrepreneurs who have driven China's two-decade-old economic boom.
"Certain amendments are still needed to promote economic and social development," said the party newspaper People's Daily. It said the changes were meant to cope with accelerating globalization and advances in science and technology.
The amendments are to be debated in October at a meeting of the party's 356-member Central Committee, state media said.
Jiang, who turns 77 this month, stepped down last November after 13 years as party leader, but retains influence as head of the commission that runs China's military.
Having his theory written into the Constitution could help him extend his influence as President Hu Jintao (
Jiang's theory, the awkwardly named "Three Represents," calls for the 67 million-member party to embrace capitalists, updating its traditional role as a "vanguard of the working class."
The People's Daily said Deng's ideology and Jiang's "important thought" should be used as "guidelines for both the reform of the economic system and the revision of the Constitution."
Jiang's theory already is party policy. It was written into the party charter last November at a congress where he handed over his post as general secretary to Hu as part of a shift in power to a younger generation of leaders.
But the notion of mentioning Jiang or his ideology by name in the nation's Constitution faces resistance from party members and Chinese legal scholars, said Joseph Cheng, a political scientist at the City University of Hong Kong.
Party members oppose exalting Jiang so prominently in an era of consensus-oriented group leadership, while legal scholars argue that it would add unnecessary clutter, Cheng said.
"Just upholding property rights and the rights of entrepreneurs would certify recognition of Jiang Zemin's contributions," he said.
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