Domestic Affairs

China's own path to political reform

By Huang Shuo (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-11-01 15:37

With over 30 years of development, China has been on a rapid-growth track to join the group of largest economies in the world, abiding by the rules with special Chinese characteristics rather than following the existing mode of development such as Russia or other former Soviet Union countries.

Every country owns their unique edges in systems that are suitable and adaptable to local environments and demands. Other powers recognized by the international community having passed the long road toward industrialization and modernization may not notice that the rise of the "dragon" is different from theirs.

Looking back to history, feudal China had been invaded by foreign powers in the West and even the East, such as Britain, France and Japan. During the last days of the collapse of the Qing Dynasty, the new deal of "preparing constitutionalism" brought about by the ruling and special interest groups, who hoped to rely on the fake deal to cheat Chinese people and alleviate the serious situation, could not defeat the destiny of falling in the end. From that, we can draw some lessons about the tendency of history that won't allow backward decisions and measures adopted by governments and leaders elected by the masses.

The Kuomintang (Nationalist Party, KMT), led by Dr. Sun Yat-sen, the first person to truly and effectively push forward democracy in China, which has more than 5,000 years of history, finally overthrew the last feudal dynasty at a devastating cost. The political reform amounted to one of the major tasks of the Revolution of 1911. However, things went awry. The Chinese bourgeois democratic revolution could not eradicate the undemocratic factors inside the country's traditional mindset and systems, which resulted in small progressive achievements, plus excessive dependence on alien powers, among which some had ulterior motives to make use of China to fulfill their own demands in energy and wealth.

Chinese forefathers have tried many times to seek the country's rejuvenation. In certain historical contexts, it can be analyzed that domestic and foreign methods to China's reform was a case of lack of independent thoughts catching up with the times.

Now, it's our turn to restart the political reform, which is a significant factor in the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. In fact, the current leadership of China has started the process by improving administrative effectiveness, abolishing life-long terms of office for senior leaders and so on. These achievements all belong to the political system reform sphere. But they are not enough to meet the standards of a harmonious society. Hence, "actively, steadily and prudently push forward reforms in the correct political direction for stability and prosperity," quoted from People's Daily on Oct 27, 2010, is essential at present.

Based on abundant economic growth and rising standards of living for ordinary people in China, we have a strong economic foundation for the next step to a harmonious society -- political reform. Inequality, corruption, widening wealth gap and other serious problems aroused domestic and foreign attention from experts and think tanks. The Chinese government can take fresh ideas truly beneficial to the development of the country and hear all parties, and even set up a political reform group providing new thoughts and ideas for decision makers.

In addition, drawing on the success of areas such as the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region is another way to promote the reform process.

More participation by the public is key to the success of China's political reform. The system of National People's Congress and Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference opens the door to ordinary people and establish seats for the grassroots to make the two sessions more diversified on behalf of society's different voices.

In the long run, China should go forward on its own path of development, especially for political reform, a sensitive issue in any transitional period, because Chinese conditions and socialist characteristics dictate that the nation has a mode of development different from other developed countries. Simply copying the format of reform from the West will not work in this nation. A combination of wisdoms from both Western and Eastern political civilizations will be much more effective than imitation and should be the way to true reform.

The author is a Beijing-based freelancer in China. He can be reached at larryhuangshuo@gmail.com.