Democracy would lead China to 'dead end': President
Chinese President Hu Jintao warned today that imitating Western political systems would lead his nation to “a dead end”.
Hu, speaking on the eve of a key Communist Party meeting, described the republic founded by Chinese revolutionary Dr. Sun Yat-sen in 1911 as a failure.
“History proves following blindly Western political systems would lead China to a dead end,” Hu said at a ceremony marking the 50th anniversary of the founding of China’s ceremonial legislature.
Hu spoke as the party, which he has led since 2002, prepared to open the annual meeting of its 198-member Central Committee, one of the highest levels of power in China. Foreign analysts say they expect no major announcements out of the meeting.
Hu has called in earlier speeches for more “socialist democracy” and responsiveness to public needs. But analysts say that is unlikely to include any tolerance for opposition parties or letting the Chinese public elect its leaders.
China’s parliament, the National People’s Congress, has become an important outlet for communist leaders to stay in touch with rapid social and economic change. But it is rarely a forum for genuine debate – a position that Hu underscored in his speech.
Legislators “must consciously put themselves under the party’s leadership, while the party should realize its leadership mainly by drafting guiding policies, forwarding lawmaking proposals and recommending candidates of major government posts”, Hu said.
Hu’s speech “recalled the failures of China’s bourgeois republic system” founded by Sun following the overthrow of China’s last emperor.
Sun founded the Nationalist Party, which ruled China until many of its people fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war to communist forces. Taiwan and China have since been ruled separately.
