China's reform has entered a critical period, and if reform does not accelerate it will be pushed back. Many in-depth problems have surfaced, and people are now making higher demands of the political system. The call for political reform has become louder both within the Communist Party of China (CPC) and in society.

Wang ChangJiang?is a professor with the Party School of CPC Central Committee.?[File photo]

People are very concerned about the upcoming 18th CPC National Congress because they have strong expectations for political reform following the congress. Therefore, the entire CPC has reached a consensus to follow the trend of the times and speed up reform.

China has experienced more than 30 years of rapid economic growth, and people have voiced higher demands for democracy. It is widely known that when economic development reaches a certain degree, purely economic reasoning will no longer play a primary role in a political system. People will begin to have increased demands for a healthy living environment, better life quality, security, dignity and happiness. Because those demands are hard meet through individual efforts and the government needs to shoulder the responsibility.

The Wukan, Qidong and Shifang incidents which occurred not long ago all demonstrated the public's high level of participation awareness. These incidents seemed to be triggered by different causes, but all share a common trait: the current political system did not provide an effective platform for public participation.

People usually associate social matters with the ruling party. This is not incorrect because the Communist Party of China is the only ruling party. The key to reforming the political system is directly tied to the reform and innovation of the ruling party. Therefore, further promoting intra-party democracy is an important component of reforming the political system. We hope to set an example for social democracy by developing intra-party democracy.

Currently the authority of those in power is still given by senior officials rather than the public. As the public lacks a channel to influence the use of the public power, they often feel powerless about the damages brought about by the abuse of public office. Thus people will lower their trust in public power, and that is the main cause for strained relations between the ruling party and the public, culminating in social conflict.

No matter how one evaluates China's current political condition, it is quite obvious that political reform has already begun. It would be advisable for the Chinese government to accelerate reform in a number of aspects after the 18th CPC National Congress.

China should make a determined effort to regulate and restrict public power. Corruption has become a social disease which jeopardizes the authority of the ruling party and lowers the public's trust in government. Lack of restraint over public power is the root cause in the growing number of corruption cases.

We can see that China has accelerated political reform while deepening economic reform. But people are not quite satisfied with the current scope of political reform. One important reason is the lack of a top-down design in political reform. We do not expect to have a detailed plan to guide reform efforts. China's reform should be tested at the grassroots level and in local areas. If successful the central government can extend the new policies to larger regions. Small localities and grassroots organizations have made multiple attempts pursuing innovative political reforms and have made meaningful and valuable contributions to the dialogue surrounding political reform. But unfortunately, we still lack a holistic plan to guide ongoing reform efforts.

Practice has proven that if a society is organized at a higher level, it experiences healthier and more orderly development. One important function of the ruling party is to advance society in an orderly fashion. Now we need to think over how to raise the level of order in our society, and how to provide a systematic channel for citizens to express and communicate their interests.

Future political reform requires intra-party democracy so as to create a leading force in promoting social democracy. Reasonable competition within the CPC should be advocated to enable more CPC members and the public to participate in the selection of those in power. This will greatly improve the legitimacy of the CPC elites' control and use of power.

The author is a professor with the Party School of CPC Central Committee.

(This article was first published in Chinese and translated by Zhang Ming'ai.)

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