China’s pledge for ‘democracy’ contradicted by internal documents
The Telegraph, 28 June 2011
By Malcolm Moore
A pledge by Wen Jiabao, the Chinese premier, to bring “full” democracy to China has been undermined by the leak of internal Communist party documents ordering the party to tighten its control on the country.
Mr Wen, who was in Germany for the latest leg of his European tour, promised in London that “tomorrow’s China will be a country that fully achieves democracy, the rule of law, fairness and justice”.
However a 60 page of internal Communist documents was yesterday publish that details the party’s efforts to suppress the rise of democratic forces.
The documents also allegedly contradict the Communist party’s claim that it does not exercise any censorship, ordering cadres to make sure that “politically sensitive information” is “blocked”, “destroyed”, or “cleansed” from the Internet, the media and books.
“In particular, crackdowns must be imposed on any aggression directed against the party and its leaders as well as against the promotion of other political systems and a free press,” one document said, according to the newspaper.
They allegedly add that: “All illegal and harmful information on Chinese and foreign web sites should be completely blocked.” And that people who disseminate such information should be “indicted and prosecuted quickly before a judge and be quickly convicted.” Information said the Communist party was presenting a “smiling face” to the West while simultaneously tightening its grip on power.
Ahead of the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Communist party next month, hundreds of activists and lawyers have been rounded up by the authorities and intimidated, and several have been jailed or “disappeared”.
In the documents, senior leaders allegedly worried that any denigration of China’s “revolutionary history” ahead of the anniversary would “encourage separatism, division among the people, extreme religious ideas or provoke social conflicts or mass demonstrations”.
Information said it had received the documents, which had been circulated to all of China’s provinces and all headquarters of the People’s Liberation Army, from a source that was “in disagreement with China’s present political orientation” and that many of the documents had originated at the party’s Central Committee, the 300-strong executive group which elects the Politburo. It said the documents were dated from late January to March of this year, and “provide insight into what appears to be deliberate Chinese double-dealing”. The newspaper did not, however, make the documents available for public scrutiny.