More than 70 intellectuals in China published an online petition Tuesday, urging the Chinese government to push reforms in the rule of law, democracy and judicial independence.

Jiang Ping, He Weifang, Xu Youyu and some other 68 renowned scholars signed on the petition after the Reform Consensus Forum jointly held in November by the Constitution and Administrative Law Research Center at Peking University and the Yanhuangchunqiu, a magazine known for publishing articles on the history of Communist Party of China.

The petition warned of the severity of current social problems in China and the consequence if the government fails to resolve these issues.

"Power abuse and corruption will push society to the brink of collapse if political reform, long demanded by people, continues to stall," the petition reads.

The petition listed corruption, abuse of power, the gap between rich and poor, the lack of the rule of law as the major obstacles in China's social development. It claims that reform has been thwarted by certain interest groups that benefit from an unfair system. "Despite the discontent over social injustice, people have not reached a consensus on how to change the current system, which weakens the push for political reform," states the petition.

The petition advocates a six-step reform plan, including advancing the supremacy of the constitution, implementing intra-party elections, allowing freedom of speech, expanding the market economy, pushing judicial independence and enforcing the rule of law.

"The government has made a lot of changes in the past decade" Li Dun, a co-signer of the petition and professor with the Research Center on Contemporary China of Tsinghua University, told the Global Times, but he also holds that many of the changes are still on the surface.

Not all scholars share the petitioners' view of current reformers or the need for greater urgency.

"For the past three decades China has gradually developed its own methodology, which we call 'wading across the stream by feeling the way.' This may appear conservative, but it stresses long-term scientific research," Fang Ning, a renowned political science scholar and director of the Institute of Political Science at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times.

"Caring about political reform is one thing, pragmatically carrying it out is another," said Fang.

Li said the petition is aimed at forming a consensus on how to implement reform and reduce the untoward consequences reform might bring.

"The consequences of stagnating reform are obvious. The cost for maintaining stability will increase and the support for the government will drop substantially."

Li said while demand for political reform is pressing and it is very important that reform be carried out in a peaceful manner. "History has proven that violent revolution is not the way to solve problems."