China pledges socialism for 100 years

CHINA'S prime minister promised to maintain "socialism for 100 years" yesterday as the Communist Party tried to play down media discussion of political reform.

"We must keep a firm grasp on the basic principles of the party in the initial stage of socialism, without wavering, for 100 years," the Wen Jiabao, said in an article reproduced in the People's Daily newspaper and other centrally controlled state media.

Dampening hopes both of Chinese dissidents and of governments abroad that have called for faster political change, he said that while democracy was necessary it could only come about on the party's terms and when the socialist system was "mature". He said that in the meantime China had to focus on economic development.

The publication of what was clearly intended as a heavyweight contribution to the country's political debates was unexpected, particularly since Mr Wen is normally in charge of the day-to-day running of China rather than longer-term speculation about its future.

But the coming annual session of the Chinese parliament and expected changes to the top leadership in the autumn, at the five-yearly Communist Party Congress, have triggered speculation at home and abroad on the prospects for political change.

In contrast to the tighter rein imposed on the media in recent years, some liberal journalists and academics have been unusually open in urging political reforms to match China's enormous economic changes.

Earlier this month, Zhou Ruijin, a retired deputy editor of the People's Daily, gave an interview to a provincial paper calling for the expansion of direct elections.

To some extent the government has encouraged this openness, by describing corruption and other forms of illegal behaviour by party officials as China's gravest social crisis and saying they had to be more accountable.

With a growing capitalist-style class system, there is also little evidence of socialism in current economic realities.

But Mr Wen insisted socialism was still the party's goal, and that it could reform itself from within.

"We have not built up a democratic legal system - social unfairness, corruption and other problems still exist and the socialist system is not yet mature," he admitted.

But he then reiterated China's standard formulation for rejecting Western-style reform. "China must walk its own way in terms of building a democratic system," he said.