A front page commentary in People’s Daily denounces multi-party democracy, in what some observers see as a response to recent comments by Premier Wen Jiabao:
Recalling the process of the three-decade reform and opening-up, it is not hard to witness that the pace of political reform in China has never ceased along the political development road of socialism with Chinese characteristics. People have carried out, according to law, the democratic election, democratic decision-making, democratic management and democratic supervision, so as to guarantee the people’s right to information, participation, expression and supervision, adherence to scientific governance, democratic governance, governance in line with law, to promote of more scientific and democratic decision-making, and to arouse and organize people to govern state affairs in accordance with law.
Late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping cited the three key indicators to appraise a county’s political system: whether its political situation is stable, whether the system can enhance the unity of its citizens and improve their livelihood, and whether the country’s productivity can be improved substantially. This famous thesis of Deng’s brings to light the dialectical relationship between the superstructure and the economic basis. Since the founding of new China in 1949 and particularly in the past 30-year reform and opening up, a historic change that occurred in China has given an eloquent proof that the socialist political system conforms to its national conditions and so it has very strong vitality.
At such critical junctures, such as the anti-flooding campaign in 1998, an earthquake measuring 8.0 on the Richter scale that hit Wenchuan, western China in May 2008, in the global financial crisis, and during ceremonial global happy events, including the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing and the ongoing 2010 Shanghai World Expo,… it is precisely the superiority of the socialist system and the powerful force of unity among the people of all ethnicities that have filled the people with the confidence to cope with challenges from natural calamities and a grim impact of economic crisis and stand the test of political turmoil and to hold a variety of major international events with flying colors.
