Chinese President Emphasizes Political Reform

On September 29, Chinese President Hu Jintao, who is also the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), called for stricter supervision on government authorities, socialist legal system reform and expansion of citizen’s participation in political affairs through democratic elections, state-run media, including People Daily reports.

At a lecture given to the CPC Central Committee Political Bureau, President Hu stressed, “It is necessary to actively reform the political system, expand socialist democracy and build a socialist nation governed by the law in order to create a well-off society.”

President Hu’s remarks came at a time when the Communist Party has been putting efforts to facilitate democracy. Now, the Political Bureau has to report its work at the Third Plenum of the 16th CPC Central Committee scheduled to be held in Beijing on October 11-14th.

However, it is likely that his statement on political system reform came to calm displeased citizens by boosting the transparency in the Communist Party’s decision-making process rather than to introduce multiparty system or election system like those of the western countries.

Yoo-Sung Hwang yshwang@donga.com