"Deepening political restructuring" – the report made by Chinese President Hu Jintao at the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) clearly pointed out the direction for political restructuring. The change in the expression from "vigorously and steadily promoting political restructuring" to "deepening political restructuring" in the report has captured worldwide attention.

In order to better understand how this will occur, Xinhua reporters interviewed several authoritative experts including Yu Keping, Deputy Director General of the Central Compilation & Translation Bureau (CCTB) and Director of the China Center for Comparative Politics & Economics (CCCPE), and Professor Zhou Tianyong with the Central Party School.

Chinese democracy will seek a gradual development road

"Political restructuring is not a thing that 'should be done' but rather 'must be done'", said Yu who is noted for his article Democracy Is a Good Thing.

Yu believes that China's political development shall gradually promote its democratic process just like the gradual reform of its economy. Sudden comprehensive reform is very unlikely to happen; however, breakthroughs may occur in some fields.

The 17th Party Congress report reiterated that "the Party has been consistently pursuing the goal of developing socialist democracy" while stating the political restructuring. The 16th Party Congress deemed the intra-party democracy as "the life of the party," and this Congress regarded the people's democracy as "the livelihood of socialism."

These all demonstrate the party's stress on democracy and their determination to promote democracy, according to Yu.

Expansion of intra-party democracy is a way to promote people's democracy

"We propose that both urban and rural areas gradually adopt the same ratio of deputies to the represented population in elections of deputies to people's congresses" – this proposal in the 17th Party Congress report is extraordinarily eye-catching.

In fact, in the election of deputies to the people's congresses at the county, township, and city levels, the electorates in the countryside and towns of Lhasa and Xigaze have adopted the same ratio.

Experts believe that the adoption of this proposal surely will eliminate the urban and rural difference in elections so as to increase the proportion of the farmer deputies to the people's congresses and give them a greater say in the state organs.

The report claimed that the purpose of deepening the political restructuring is to ensure that the people are masters of the country, going on to say that, "the essence and core of socialist democracy are that the people are masters of the country."

Yu said that the report outlined a realistic path for the development of democracy. People's democracy is the final aim, and intra-party democracy is the way to promote the people's democracy.

The rule of law as a fundamental principle

Since 2002, the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee has organized 44 collective studies, the first being study of the Constitution. "This is a strong and clear signal that the central leadership attaches great importance to the rule of law as a fundamental principle," said Huang Weiting, Vice Editor-in-Chief of the Red Flag Publishing House.

The rule of law constitutes the essential requirement for socialist democracy. The 17th National Congress report made detailed arrangements: persisting in scientific and democratic legislation; carrying out government administration in accordance with the law; deepening the reform of judiciary system; and, stepping up the education campaign to increase public awareness of law.

Yu Keping explained that the current legal system is not yet complete and under this system personal interference in judiciary still exists. "These problems can be effectively resolved only through deepening the reform of the legal and judiciary systems, establishing the supreme authority of the Constitution and laws, and promoting scientific and democratic legislation and democracy," he said.

From governance to service

The report clearly stated that the reform of the administrative system is an important part of socialist democratic politics. The report also pointed out that "the administrative reform is an important part of the efforts to deepen China's overall reform" and outlined the general idea of the reform.

Zhou Tianyong was greatly inspired by the two points – "losing no time in working out a master plan for the administrative reform" and "exploring ways to establish greater departments with integrated functions" – mentioned in the report. "Government departments shall develop into larger departments with extensive functions and less organs so as to cut down levels of administration and address the problems of overlapping organizations and functions and conflicting policies from different departments," said Zhou.

Yu Keping believes that "the overall tendency of the reform of the administrative system shall gradually change its role from governance to service and from the rule by man to by law and from centralization to division of power."

Power must be exercised in the sunshine

The report noted that we must have institutions to govern power, work, and personnel, and establish a sound structure of power and a mechanism for its operation in which decision-making, enforcement, and oversight powers check each other and function in coordination.

"This sentence roughly sketched the outline of the power restraint system in China," Yu said. All powers must be within effective restraint, otherwise arbitrariness and corruption might occur.

The report also stated that, "power must be exercised in the sunshine to ensure that it is exercised correctly." Yu believes "this is the result of collecting people's wisdom and listening to their voices. It clearly demonstrates that while cracking down on corruption the Party gives more priority to the permanent solutions to corruption and its prevention and the institutional improvement." 

Further reading: Democracy and political progress in China

(China.org.cn by Zhang Ming'ai, November 15, 2007)