The Province, 29 June 2011
By Malcolm Moore

PM’s promise rings hollow as Communist Party orders suppression

A pledge by Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao to bring “full” democracy to China has been cast into doubt by the leak of internal Communist Party documents that apparently order the party to tighten its control on the country.

Wen, who was in Germany as part of his European tour Tuesday, promised in London that “tomorrow’s China will be a country that fully achieves democracy, the rule of law, fairness and justice.”

However, 60 pages of internal Communist documents that allegedly detail the party’s efforts to suppress democratic forces were published by Information, a Danish newspaper.

The documents also allegedly contradict the party’s claim that it does not exercise any censorship, by apparently 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.

The papers allegedly add that “all illegal and harmful information on Chinese and foreign websites 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.

Before the 90th anniversary of the founding of the party next month, hundreds of activists and lawyers have been rounded up by the authorities and intimidated and several have been jailed or have “disappeared.”

In the documents, senior leaders allegedly express concern that any denigration of China’s “revolutionary history” before 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 who was “in disagreement with China’s present political orientation.”

Many of the documents had originated at the party’s central committee, the 300-strong executive group that 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 make the documents available for public scrutiny.
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