Beijing - - China must make law-enforcement fairer and more accountable to defuse social strains unleashed by its rapid economic growth, the government cabinet has said in a document calling for stronger rule of law.
The “opinion” on rule of law was issued by the State Council, or Cabinet, that is overseen by Premier Wen Jiabao late on Monday. It lays bare the fears of some officials that the country's Communist Party-controlled judicial system is failing to address corruption and other sources of social discontent.
“China's economic and social development is now entering a new phase,” says the document, which was issued on the central government's website (www.gov.cn).
“Urban-rural and regional development is unbalanced, income distribution inequities and disparities are growing, there are profound adjustments in the social structure and array of interests, social conflicts have increased in some regions and sectors, mass incidents sometimes break out, and corruption remains common in some sectors,” said the document.
“Mass incidents” refers to riots, protests and other forms of collective unrest.
Overcoming these pent-up strains will require “oversight and constraints on the exercise of administrative power, promoting administration according to the law, and building a government of rule-of-law,” says the document, which is dated October 10 but has been made public only now.
The call for stronger rule of law underscores the rival streams of thought in China's ruling Communist Party, with some officials, especially Premier Wen, urging reforms to give citizens more say, while the government as a whole remains tied to the current recipe of rapid economic growth under unyielding one-party rule.
Since 1989, Beijing has rejected any notion of embracing Western-style democracy, with officials pointing to the turmoil that has afflicted some post-Soviet states. But Wen has made the case that some reform is needed to keep pace with the economic transformations coursing through society.
In August, Wen said that if China failed to embrace political reform it “may lose what it has already achieved through economic restructuring”. Authorities, he said, must check abuses or risk “regression and stagnation”.
But since then, Chinese state-run newspapers have said that stability under unchallenged Party rule must be the bedrock of any political changes, parting company with the more urgent calls for reform.
The new State Council document called for a series of changes to encourage officials to stick impartially to laws when making decisions. They should “reasonably define the limits of law-enforcement powers,” it said. - Reuters