THE PAST few days have seen a host of diverse editorials in the People’s Daily, the official newspaper of China’s Communist Party – some appearing critical of Premier Wen Jiabao’s calls for reform, others launching piercing attacks on Western-style democracy.
For anyone looking for China’s future direction, especially when the current leadership under President Hu Jintao begins to hand over power after 2012, all of the commentaries are significant.
This whole debate within the People’s Daily comes in the wake of bold calls for unspecified political reforms from Premier Wen, as well as the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to imprisoned Chinese dissident writer Liu Xiaobo, who had urged an end to single-party rule.
“If our country was to indiscriminately copy the Western way, we would lose the foundational thinking of shared struggle, lose the robustness of core leadership, and the country would turn into a sheet of loose sand,” ran one editorial on Thursday, under the heading “The Western Political Model Cannot be Duplicated”. It didn’t mention either Mr Wen or the Nobel laureate by name, but it did say: “Western forces and those with whom they work in concert” were attacking the party and socialist system under the guise of reforming the political system.
As the Communist Party’s official mouthpiece, or communication organ – party figures find the word “mouthpiece” too negative – if it’s in the People’s Daily, there is an almost certain chance that it reflects views in Zhongnanhai, the secret enclave where China’s leadership makes the decisions that affect the lives of 1.3 billion people. But within that leadership structure, starting with the nine-member Politburo Standing Committee, there are wildly divergent views on how to manage China’s future growth in the world’s most populous nation.
An editorial yesterday seemed critical of vested interests and state monopolies who oppose a more equal distribution of China’s new wealth. It’s not a call for reform, but is an urging to rejig the infrastructure that might signpost the way towards change.
It also comes hard on the heels of a party plenum which appeared to show unity by clearing the way for Xi Jinping, the man believed to be president-designate, but which fell short on declaring a vision for China’s future.
The reaction within China has been rather mixed. One web commentator wrote anonymously on an internet forum that it probably was not as easy as simply taking a Western model of democracy. “I think the People’s Daily’s comments are partly right . . . we should explore our own way, in tandem with China’s special character, but on the other hand, we should not deny those useful factors coming from the West.” Other comments were more forthright. “Yes, maybe Western democracy is not proper for China, but official corruption is not proper either,” wrote one.