Add new strength to democracy

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By Wu Yixue (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-09-18 08:37

Chinese society is filled with high expectations that the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee's annual plenary session, concluding today, will go down in history as a milestone in adding new strength to socialism and democracy.

The strategy of the Communist Party central leadership, as Yu Keping, deputy director of the CPC's Central Compilation and Translation Bureau, recently said, is to use intra-Party democracy as a leading force in promoting social democracy.

Major practices will likely be introduced one after another by the Party leadership to enhance ties with the citizens and their flourishing non-governmental organizations, so that the benefit of economic reform would be more evenly shared and distributed, he told China Daily.

Since the beginning of the four-day plenary session, the Chinese language press has published many experts' opinions on how to strengthen the Communist Party's organizational improvement and intra-Party democracy.

Since we are now at a new historical stage, the construction of intra-Party democracy acquires new and realistic significance, said Gao Xinmin, an expert on Party building with the Party School of the CPC Central Committee.

"With the diversification of the interests among all social groups and strata, the CPC should further absorb CPC members and even the general public towards participation in decision-making to guarantee that all major decisions are in the interests of the overwhelming majority of the common people," Gao told 21st Century Business Herald on Wednesday.

In recent years, the CPC has advocated the establishment of a democratic and scientific system and procedure on promoting Party officials and has also done a lot of work in pushing for the openness of Party governance and affairs. Both these aspects are extremely relevant to the construction of the CPC's internal democracy.

"That the CPC stresses using the improvement of intra-Party democracy to prompt the development of social democracy indicates its aspiration to resolve accumulated issues and contradictions produced by six decades of governance of China," he said.

In fact, experts say, how to effectively promote intra-Party democracy and press for its organizational improvement has become one of the most immediate challenges to the ruling Party under the new situations at home and abroad.

The resolution on Party building produced by the Fourth Plenary Session of the 17th CPC Central Committee is expected to further boost the Party's development in these two aspects - two crucial issues that will decide whether the CPC can exercise a more effective governance of the world's most populous nation and the third largest economy.

"The themes of the CPC Central Committee's annual session this year are within expectations and have been earnestly awaited by all Party members," said Ye Duchu, a professor with the CPC Central Committee's Party School.

"Despite facing a string of complicated tasks under ever-changing conditions, the advancement of the CPC's organization building in an orderly and well-mapped direction will help the ruling Party lead the whole nation to pioneer the great socialist cause with Chinese characteristics," said Ye, also a prestigious authority on Party building. "This is a continuation of the CPC's spirits on Party building since the First Plenary Session of the 17th CPC Central Committee in 2007."

At last year's meeting in commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the Third Plenary Session of the 11th CPC Central Committee in 1978, a milestone conference that catalyzed the birth of the country's historical reform and opening-up policy, CPC Central Committee General Secretary Hu Jintao said the Party should combine the development of China's socialist cause with the Party's organizational construction. Also, at a CPC Central Committee Political Bureau conference on June 29, Hu once again pointed out that "we should attach great importance to and actively push for intra-Party democracy".

"It is important for the CPC to acknowledge existing problems facing intra-Party democracy and organizational improvement, and then start resolving them," said Wang Guixiu, also a professor with the CPC Central Committee's Party School.

"The CPC has conducted various kinds of experiments in intra-Party practices at local levels in recent years, such as the establishment of the tenure system for deputies to Party congresses as well as the standing deputy system at grassroots Party congresses. All these innovative reforms will provide the necessary experience for the promotion of intra-Party democracy on a broader scale," Wang said.

In this aspect, Taizhou has set up an example for regions beyond. The establishment of the deputy tenure system and the standing deputy system in the small city in eastern Zhejiang province, has made them more active. Now, some local CPC committees across Sichuan, Hubei, Jiangsu, Guangdong and other provinces have followed in Taizhou's footsteps.

Also, how to push for the reform of the Party congress is another new area for grassroots Party organizations to promote intra-Party democracy and strengthen their organizational improvement. In this field, Ya'an and other regions in Sichuan province have made active explorations and their successful experience - such as all participants of the local Party congress exercising equal voting power regardless of their official levels and posts - are expected to spread to the rest of the country.

(China Daily 09/18/2009 page8)