From Chinaelections.org

Edward Cody, in his Washington Post article, wrote that Wen’s speech was a warning to the reformers as well as a declaration “that political liberalization and democracy are still a long way off”.¬† Ting Shi of SCMP deciphered the speech as a policy preference of “economy before democracy”.¬† What exactly did Wen Say? ¬† How is his speech compared to speeches/articles made by other top Chinese leaders? For the Chinese version of Wen’s speech, click: Ê∏©ÂÆ∂ÂÆùË∞àÁ§æ‰ºö‰∏ª‰πâÂàùÁ∫ßÈò∂ÊƵÁöÑÂéÜÂè≤‰ªªÂä°ÂíåÂØπ§ñÊîøÁ≠ñ; for the English summary of the speech by Xinhua, click: Premier Wen: promoting fairness, social justice is a major task .¬† There seems to be several other angles to look at Wen’s speech.¬†

a)      First, Wen sounded very much like a progressive reformer (This is what Zhou Ruijin advocated in his recent article, saying China needs to do what the United States had done during the progressive reform, see 周瑞金呼吁借鉴美进步运动), trumpeting efficiency, social justice, regulation and democracy, all under the auspice of an active central government.

b)      Wen did not say Western style democracy is not suitable to the Chinese circumstances as has been argued by so many other Chinese officials.   In fact, Wen said peculiar as it is, China can and will eventually adopt rule of law, choice and accountability.

c)      Wen actually made a very serious and powerful argument that China will not be respected in the world if it does not have democracy.

d)      His article was a lot more progressive than the two articles by Jia Qinglin ( 贾庆林：决不能照搬西方三权鼎立的政治制度模式 ) and Luo Gan respectively ( 罗干：构建和谐社会 政法机关担负重大历史使命 ).

e)¬†¬†¬†¬†¬† In order not to cause any loud protest from the conservative corner in China, Wen has shrouded his article in peculiar Chinese doublespeak, solemnly citing Deng Xiaoping and Jiang Zeming, frequently referring to Hu’s concepts and loyally declaring China was still at the preliminary stage of socialism. ¬† Deng launched his reform using the same strategy.¬†

 

It is sad to see there is no progress in terms of openly debating the merit of democracy and the necessity of introducing political reform but it might also be wrong to write off Wen’s speech as shots across the bow to the reform oriented officials like Zhou Ruijin and scholars like Xie Tao and Hu Xingdou (who said, “Wen’s speech is an official response to the recent open call for bold democratic reforms,” said Hu Xingdou , a Beijing-based political scientist. “It’s a de facto `No, we’re not ready, or the timing is not right for broad and sweeping political reforms’.”