Article - No Western democracy: China

ST March 9 2009

'We will never exercise multi-party rule... the separation of legislative, executive and judicial powers or the bicameral system,' parliament head Wu Bangguo (left) said at the annual session of the National People's Congress. --PHOTO: AP

BEIJING - CHINA will not give up one-party communist rule nor adopt western-style democracy, the nation's parliamentary head said on Monday, ahead of the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen democracy protests.

'We will never exercise multi-party rule... the separation of legislative, executive and judicial powers or the bicameral system,' parliament head Wu Bangguo said at the annual session of the National People's Congress.

We 'can by no means indiscriminately copy the western system,' he added.

Mr Wu is number two in the Chinese Communist Party pecking order following President Hu Jintao, who has also voiced a similar aversion to Western-style democracy. Mr Wu's comments come as the 20th anniversary of the crushing of the 1989 Tiananmen democracy protests approaches in June and after over 300 top political activists issued a plea for democracy in a petition last year.

The petition, called Charter 08, was seen as a daring call for political reform and basic democratic rights, as well as for the end of one party government.

Numerous signatories have been arrested or interrogated by police, likely out of fears of social unrest on the 20th anniversary of the protests, which were seen as the biggest threat to communist rule since the founding of the People's Republic in 1949.

Over 8,000 people have signed the Charter in its online form.

The release of Charter 08 coincided with the 60th anniversary of the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights and was modeled on Charter 77, issued by dissidents in Czechoslovakia in 1977.

In his speech, Mr Wu called on legislators to uphold the leadership of the Communist Party and to make clear distinctions between China's system of government and that of Western democracies. 'China's system of political parties is a system of multiparty cooperation and political consultation under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, not a Western-style multiparty system,' he said.

His comments also appeared to pour cold water on any hopes of discussions on advancing democratic political reform in China at this year's annual session of parliament. -- AFP

Related article - China reinforces rejection of 'Western' democracy (IHT.com, 10 March 2009)

Question:

Based on the extract above and your own knowledge, how far has China's political system progressed since 1978?