One-party system has space for change

Source:Global Times Published: 2014-1-6 21:53:01

Pieter Bottelier

Editor's Note: 

China has promised significant new market-oriented reforms under the leadership of General Secretary Xi Jinping, most recently in a series of measures announced following the Third Plenary Session of 18th CPC Central Committee. How can China better advance its reform? What kind of system suits China's needs best? The Global Times (GT) Washington-based special correspondent Li Boya talked to Pieter Bottelier (Bottelier), a former senior staffer at the World Bank and an economist and China scholar, now an adjunct professor, Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, over these issues.

GT: What significant advances have there been in Chinese politics recently?

Bottelier:
The recently completed Third Plenum was a watershed event in the history of modern China. The 60 decisions communicated to the world on November 15, three days after the meeting closed, are extremely important.

They provide the most comprehensive and detailed road map for deepening the economic and social reforms started under then Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping in the late 1970s. The road map is clear; and the challenge is implementation. It is not going to be easy. Strong leadership and a lot of courage will be needed.

Powerful interest groups will resist change and use their influence to preserve the status quo, sometimes at the expense of long-term development and stability.

The Chinese people and the world as a whole have benefited enormously from China's reform and opening up. Whether political reform is required to successfully pursue the goals and policies agreed at the Third Plenum, is for China to decide.

GT: What direction do you think the Party wants to take?

Bottelier:
Deng was able to persuade fellow leaders in the late 1970s that China had to follow a different, more open and more market-oriented path to economic development. He was convinced, however, that the political system had to be preserved.

Nonetheless, as a result of China's highly successful reform and opening-up strategy and the much greater importance of economic development in guiding decision-making than before, many changes in the way the system functions were introduced, such as the shift to collective leadership at the top, term limits for senior leaders, a partial re-centralization of financial and fiscal controls, exchange rate unification, and much greater emphasis on professional qualifications for appointments and promotions.

At the same time, to promote efficiency and growth, the system began to rely more on the promotion of domestic competition, even among State-owned enterprises, and global economic integration through investment and trade.

China also chose to become an active member of many international organizations, in part, to learn from international economic, social, and political experience. In the 1980s and 1990s there was probably no developing country that put greater emphasis on learning from international experience than China.

Many intellectuals thought that China should also pursue domestic political reform. However, in the 2000s, as the shortcomings of alternative political systems became increasingly apparent, enthusiasm for domestic political reform seems to have cooled, especially following the international financial crisis that started in the US in 2008.

One of the key questions facing China today is whether sustained high economic growth with social stability, much less inequality and much better protection of the environment, is possible without significant change not only in the way the political system functions, but also in the design of the system.

GT: Does China need a multi-party system, as some argue?

Bottelier: I am inclined to think that changing to a multi-party political system is not needed at this time and perhaps too dangerous for China to try. China's experience with such a system in the first half of the 20th century, after the revolution of 1911, is not encouraging.

I believe, that high growth with greater democracy, greater social fairness, better environmental protection and a more balanced pattern of economic development, can be achieved within China's one-party system.

This can happen provided the emphasis in policymaking shifts decisively toward greater social inclusion, greater accountability to the people, a key feature of the present government from the start, greater reliance on economic competition and market pricing, as was also decided by the recent Third Plenum, greater transparency, and genuine constitutionalism, including de facto judiciary independence and equal protection under the law.

GT: Look at the current political impasse in the US, why is it so difficult to have both parties reconcile for the sake of the country?

Bottelier:
I sincerely hope that the two main political parties in the US will learn to cooperate once again. This will require a willingness to compromise and a reorientation in political thinking toward national interests, rather than perceived party interests. The political dysfunction of recent years should not be allowed to continue any longer.

The challenges facing the US are enormous and multiple. I do believe that the current political polarization scene can be changed, it has happened before in the US history, but I do not know when it will happen.

GT: What course should China's future development take?

Bottelier:
China has made enormous economic and social process since the start of market reforms in the late 1970s. The rest of the world has also benefited enormously.

Much of China's development can be explained by timely and effective domestic institutional development, especially in the economic arena including relations between various levels of government.

In my opinion, economic and social development can be taken much further within China's one-party system, as explained above.

Future institutional development should, in my opinion, place greater emphasis on social fairness, environmental protection, equal protection under the law and constitutionality in general than in the past.

Only China can determine what this means in practice. There is no shortage of highly qualified intellectuals, think tanks and experienced politicians in China who can figure out what needs to be done and provide leadership in deepening the reform process.



Posted in:

blog comments powered by Disqus