The public comments made by Premier Wen Jiabao about the future of Chinese democracy immediately became a topic of discussion among Chinese Internet users. An essay on this topic, written by “Guanzhongren,” has been distributed in Chinese BBS, such as Xici Hutong, after being posted on the China Governance and Elections web site. A rough, partial translation of the essay is below. The original Chinese version is here.
From “Hu and Wen discuss democracy; The common people listen for the residual sounds.” (ËÉ°Ê∏©ËÆ≤Ê∞ë‰∏ª ÁôæÂßìÂꨉΩôÈü≥) by Guanzhongren:
…Although our decision-makers did not give a timetable for political reform nor details of how to expand the current “four democracies”, which now are constrained to the village level, we still hope that this is preparation for the attack…
Throughout the reform and opening process, because of the incomplete legal system and the policy inclinations, the economic gap has increased, corruption has worsened, the common people have grown resentful and sudden collective incidents constantly increase, and relations between officials and the people are growing more tense every day…
In this situation, Chinese society is becoming a high-pressure cooker. None of the past pressure-reduction valves, such as “We successfully win the right to hold the Olympics,” “The speed of our economic development has shocked the whole world,” “Our Chinese race must not forget the past shame and we need internal solidarity to only focus on external enemies,” “We must grasp this opportunity to insist that stability overrides everything else and insist on the leadership of the Party” will any longer have any effect. Maybe the only way to reduce the pressure is to make the common people feel there is justice: “Give the common people transparency, and in return they will restore your reputation.”
What this sentence means is the specifics of how to put the “Four democracies” into practice, that is to say: allow open and public personnel decisions about government officials; allow the media to responsibly monitor the government; allow every level of the People’s Congress to monitor the budget, approve the personnel decisions, and vote on important policy decisions; allow elections of representatives at every level of the People’s Congress without the Party’s intervention and control [no matter if the election is direct or indirect]…
