BEIJING: Wen Jiabao, entering his final year as China’s premier, called Wednesday for vague political reforms to forestall chaos and solidify growth as the nation’s legislature approved a budget aiming to boost domestic consumption in the face of weak demand for exports.
On the final day of its annual session, the legislature also approved revisions to the key criminal procedure law that at least on paper will restrict police powers to secretly detain people, a tactic increasingly used against activists and government critics.
At his annual news conference following the session’s close, Wen repeated reform calls, saying they were needed to consolidate the achievements of three decades of economic growth and prevent a repeat of the mass disorder that rocked China during the violent 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution.
“Without a successful political structural reform … new problems that have cropped up in China’s society will not be fundamentally resolved and such historical tragedies as the Cultural Revolution may happen again,†Wen said.
“I know very well that the reform will not be an easy one. The reform will not be able to succeed without the consciousness, the support, the enthusiasm and creativity of our people,†he said.
The Cultural Revolution, Mao Zedong’s failed experiment in radical egalitarianism, led to the deaths and persecution of millions, upended the nation’s leadership, and fostered broad cynicism about the communist system. China’s leaders, many of whom suffered grave hardships during that period, routinely hold it up as justification for strict political and societal control.
As before, Wen offered no specific proposals, saying reform had to adhere to China’s particular national circumstances and proceed in a “step-by-step manner.†Chinese leaders often define political reform in terms of boosting administrative efficiency, but even those paltry efforts at streamlining have gained little traction against an entrenched bureaucracy and struggle for influence ahead of this fall’s generational leadership transition.
Touching on recent unrest in Tibetan areas, Wen said economic growth was needed to counter sentiments that have prompted more than two dozen Tibetans, including several teenagers, to set themselves on fire to protest China’s suppression of their religion and culture and call for the return of the Dalai Lama.
“We don’t support this kind of extreme acts in disrupting and undermining social harmony. The young monks are innocent. We feel distressed about what they have done,†Wen said. “We should treat Tibetan compatriots as equals and with respect and keep improving our work.â€
It was Wen’s last annual news conference, as he will step down before the end of the congress next year. He appeared sentimental at times, apologizing for any mistakes he may have made and saying much work still needed to be done.
“I have the courage to face the people and face history,†he said.
He gave no indications of what he plans to do — other than possible trips to Hong Kong and Taiwan — when he retires after 10 years in office that saw him drive up China’s economy to become the second largest in the world after the United State. It was sixth largest in 2003 when he become premier.
But China is seeking a slightly slower pace of expansion now while trying to rebalance the world’s second-largest economy, so on Wednesday the congress approved a growth figure of 7.5 percent figure this year — a target below previous goals.
China has produced three decades of rapid growth primarily through exports, but the sluggish world economy and rising wages within China raise questions about how long that can continue. The World Bank said recently that the economic strategy is unsustainable. The bank issued a report with a Chinese Cabinet think-tank that called for more free-market reforms.
The changes to the criminal procedure law were the most high-profile legal measures passed by the congress. They are portrayed as offering better protection for suspects and reflecting increasing awareness in China of the need for stronger detainee rights, although legal enforcement in China remains weak.
Police and prosecutors routinely ignore current legal provisions protecting suspects’ rights and have frequently used charges of endangering national security against dissidents.
The measure’s approval by a vote of 2,639 to 160 ends months of speculation and debate about whether the government would give police the legal authority to do something they have long done extralegally: disappear people for months at a time without telling their families.
Police have increasingly used the tactic over the past year to detain activist lawyers, democracy campaigners, and even internationally acclaimed artist Ai Weiwei, amid government worries about whether the popular uprisings of the Arab Spring might spread to China.
There are two relevant articles in the new law that deal with notifying families, one in regular criminal cases and the other involving a type of detention known as residential surveillance. Both have been revised to better protect detainees, though they don’t do away completely with secret detentions, analysts said.
In the case of residential surveillance, a sort of house arrest that can happen in a fixed location chosen by police, a detainee’s family must be notified within 24 hours unless they can’t be reached. Dissidents detained under this kind of residential surveillance are often put in suburban hotels or apartments, and many have reported being tortured by police.
Beijing human rights lawyer Pu Zhiqiang dismissed the legal tinkering, saying arbitrary enforcement and lack of independent oversight rendered such changes meaningless.
“I can’t get very excited about any new provisions legalizing types of detention. The authorities have always operated just as they pleased without regard to rules,†Pu said, citing the ongoing and still-unexplained detention of figures such as blind lawyer Chen Guangcheng and Liu Xia, the wife of imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo.(KMW NEWS)
