China's political reform on the right road

• Source: Global Times
• [21:18 December 30 2009]
• Comments

GT: What is the general orientation of China's political reform?

Fang: The general orientation is quite clear now. China's political reform is a triple combination of Party leadership, the People's Congress and the rule of law. This framework has been formed, and will not change for a long time. Thus our reforms will not be fundamental. Unlike economic reform, which involved transferring from the planned economy to the market economy, the political system requires developing and improving, not a change in the system itself.

GT: Some think that China's political reform is problem-based and has no timetable. What's your opinion?

Fang: Actually I don't think there will be any schedule or timeline. Once our political system fits in with economic development and national conditions, it will be good.

We can only keep adjusting and improving it as the society develops, but cannot artificially set a clear timetable.

We have to consider concrete situations when we make political adjustments. In general, political reform cannot be built on good wishes or public imagination. This fits in China's national conditions and the Chinese tradition of emphasizing the coordina-tion of individual interests and collective interests.

GT: What can the government do to solve corruption?

Gang: The problem of corruption is complicated, and it stems from both the reform and Chinese culture. Corruption will exist in China for a very long time. We need to examine this problem objectively from a historical perspective. On the one hand, we should be aware of the seriousness of the problem, and fight against it determinedly.

But on the other hand, we cannot exaggerate the problem, be too anxious about it, or take a "left" approach. The "left" error we made during the Cultural Revolution was taking excess measures to fight official corruption, and such measures only worsened the problem.

There are always two sides to a system. Those system mechanisms that cause corruption may also be the reason for our success. Take the relationship between government and business for example. To a large extent, what has protected China against the devastating effects of the ongoing financial crisis is the close linkage of government and business.

According to Western economic theories, businesses are the most sensitive part of the market economy.

However, in Dongguan, Guangdong Province, it was the local government, not businesses, which realized the impact of the financial crisis first. When individual businesses had a reduction in orders, they did not necessarily know it was because of the downturn of the whole market.

Instead, through macro-monitoring, the government came to the conclusion that it's a structural problem, and that the financial crisis had impacted China. Then, the government took preventive measurements to fight against a possible market downturn.

But the close relationship between the government and enterprises can also be a major cause of corruption. Behind every successful entrepreneur there are many officials, and behind every official there are also lots of entrepreneurs.

The close relationship between the government and business has contributed greatly to China's economic achievement, but it also provides a hotbed for corruption.

Resolving corruption cannot be achieved at one stroke, and it may take one or two generations. When I did research in South Korea, former leaders of student movements told me that when they fought against the military regime, they believed that corruption was a system-related problem, but after 20 years, they found that corruption was more related to living standard, development stage and culture.

The situation of China's corruption may be better in 20 or 30 years. In political science, there is a rule of laws being not laid down to punish the majority. We can only punish the most serious corruption. We can execute one as a warning to a hundred, but not execute everyone.

In some sense, corruption is general in China, and there are certain reasons for this. Calmness and rationality are needed when judging corruption.

At present, the influence of corruption in China is far from threatening the existing system, which is still functioning well. Only if all the corrupt officials got out of control would the regime collapse.

Yet there are some restrictions on officials' conduct in today's China, and people being unaware of these restrictions does not mean that they don't exist. But government should enhance administrative transparency and guide public opinion. Some local governments, like the Nanjing government, have done a good job. Making government affairs public is a major task.

In order to ensure that the Party represents the interests of the people, it is necessary to guarantee the advanced nature of the Party and enhance its ability to govern. Meanwhile, the strengthening of internal and external supervision in the political system as well as supervision by the people is crucial.

There is much work to do. The government needs to make policies further public and transparent, since public supervision is the kind of supervision that costs the least, but it also needs to improve legalized, standardized and procedural supervisor.