Beijing lays down limits of reform

By Willy Lam
CNN Senior China Analyst

(CNN) -- In the run-up to the 12th anniversary of the June 4, 1989 crackdown, dissidents inside China and China experts overseas have renewed calls on the communist leadership to start genuine political reform.

Beijing however has reiterated that it is only interested in a kind of "self-perfectionism" -- improving the quality and probity of officials, as well as the performance of civil servants.

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The official media has quoted the vice-chief of the party's Organization Department, Tong Yancheng, as saying that since 1989, 473,000 party members had been kicked out of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Tong said the party had increased "democratic evaluation" of cadres, adding that the "purity and fighting spirit" of party cells had been strengthened.

A party source said Beijing leaders including President Jiang Zemin and his protege, Zeng Qinghong, the head of the CCP Organization Department, had vowed to do more in ensuring that sub-standard and corrupt cadres be weeded out.

'Scientific system'

"Jiang and Zeng want more cadres to be picked through open examinations," the source said.

"They also want a scientific evaluation system to monitor the performance of officials. However, Jiang has reiterated that no Western-style political reforms be allowed."

Analysts in Beijing and Hong Kong said Jiang and other leaders had ruled out "Western-style" reforms such as popular elections on the grounds they would be destabilizing.

Wu Guoguang, a Sinologist at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said it was most unlikely the CCP leadership would go beyond administrative streamlining and other reforms of the cadre system.

Wu, a former member of a party Central Committee think tank, said there were many similarities between the political situation of 1989 and today.

Worsening corruption

"In 1989, there was widespread opposition to corruption and economic dislocations such as hyperinflation," he said.

"Now, corruption is much worse. And while there is no inflation, joblessness has increased to alarming proportions."

Wu said, however, while the leadership was divided in 1989, top cadres today are united on the need to preserve political stability and prolong the CPP's monopoly on power.

Ching Cheong, a China researcher who was based in Beijing from 1980 to 1989, also indicated that the status quo would continue for the foreseeable future.

"Soon after 1989, many intellectuals predicted that the CCP would collapse in one or two years," he said.

"These predictions have failed to take into consideration Chinese reality, particularly the situation in rural China, where most Chinese live."