On Dec. 20, during the second meeting of the ninth Beijing Party Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CPC), party secretary and Beijing Mayor Liu Qi (
Liu said, "Beijing will expand the orderly participation of Bei-jing residents in politics and the people's right to know, and we will transform the will of the party into the will and action of all Beijing residents."
Liu is a technocrat who has been involved in Beijing politics for many years. During all these years, he has never made such open-minded and daring remarks. His advocacy of the expansion of popular participation and the people's right to know also differs clearly from the past.
There is reason to believe that these remarks by Liu were not the sudden impulsive act of an individual. Around the time that he made the comments, there were reports that the CPC would conduct an experiment involving a tripartite division of powers in Shenzhen; and Song Defu (宋德福), secretary of the Fujian provincial party committee and a central personality in the Tuanpai (團派, Communist Youth League Group), advocated the expansion of grassroots democracy beginning with community self-rule.
Even more noteworthy is some information spread by senior Communist party officials. On Dec. 12, the Xinhua News Agency published an article called Persisting in the practical realization of fundamental theoretical innovation, by a guest commentator.
The article said that "there are no limits to practical action, and there are no limits to innovation," that "we will surpass our forebears, as our successors will surpass us." It went on to say and that "the understanding of ideas will be consciously liberated from the fetters of anachronistic ideas, methods and systems."
The basic thrust of the commentary was that the resolutions resulting from the first Politburo plenary meeting chaired by Hu Jintao (
The Xinhua News Agency later published another article by a commentator, called Strengthen crisis awareness, open up new vistas.
It calls for a clear recognition of the state of the nation and a constant crisis awareness. It is also a call to "break down all thought and ideas blocking development, destroy all methods and regulations fettering development and abolish all systems and irregular practices affecting development."
Anyone who remembers the 1980s will recall that "crisis awareness" was first proposed by then-CPC secretary-general Zhao Ziyang (
After the 1989 democracy movement, official CPC propaganda never mentioned "crisis awareness" again. It is no coincidence that "crisis awareness" is now once again being proposed in the name of "a Xinhua News Agency commentator."
Recently, rumors have emanated from Beijing political circles that a group of people who originally followed Hu Yaobang (胡耀邦) and Zhao may gradually be allowed back into the system to assist Hu Jintao, Zeng Qinghong (曾慶紅) and Wen Jiabao (溫家寶). Although these are only rumors, we can certainly see some of the climate of opinion of the Hu-Zhao era in this re-emergence of "crisis awareness."
Everyone is talking loudly about theoretical and systemic innovation, while debate about political reform is also becoming gradually more vibrant.
As far as I can remember, such an atmosphere has previously existed only during the Hu-Zhao era in the late 1980s and the first one or two years after the speeches of Deng Xiaoping (鄧小平) made during his 1992 southern tour were made public.
This recent series of debates initiated by the party apparatus and local officials clearly shows that the new generation of CPC leaders is unhappy with the fact that ultimate power eludes it, even though it has assumed the leadership. It is now trying to find a way around this political reality.
Wang Dan was a student leader during the 1989 Tiananmen Square demonstrations in Beijing.
Translated by Perry Svensson
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