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Communist Party undergoes reforms

New methods to improve party democracy

BEIJING: While large-scale re-elections of local leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC) are proceeding at provincial, municipal, county and township levels, some new methods have been employed to improve party democracy in the process.

Most noteworthy is the introduction of a new cadre appraisal system characterised with more democratic features, involving public opinion poll, political achievements analysis, face-to-face talk and comprehensive assessment before the officials are elected or appointed.

Sources with the party organisation departments said the 2006-2007 re-elections, a major political event before the convening of the 17th national congress of the CPC, underscored guarantee of ordinary party members' right to know, to participate, to select and to supervise.

Say in the campaign

Meanwhile, grassroots people outside the party have also been granted a say in the campaign through public opinion polls.

As a new test, the CPC provincial committee of the booming Jiangsu in east China has ordered all the local party committees at township level to adopt an open candidate selection system.

Various means, including questionnaire-based survey, door-step investigation, online research and symposium are being employed in Zhejiang and Sichuan provinces to invite ordinary people to assess cadres' performance, the sources said.

Under a cadre achievement hearing system in Donghai County in Jiangsu, eight persons were scored low and have been accordingly removed from leading posts.

Founded in 1921, the CPC now has 70.8 million members and 3.52 million grassroot organisations. Its whole regime came into being in the past revolution era and it had for decades followed the Soviet model.

A highly centralised leadership with the worship of the former Chairman, Mao Zedong, had served as a key element bringing China into the chaotic Cultural Revolution between 1966-76, with tens of thousands of people including many loyal party members being persecuted.

As China has entered a new epoch for creating an economic miracle, the party is faced with various problems such as corruption, low efficiency and bureaucracy and thus a self-improvement is being urged.

The Fourth Plenary Session of the 16th CPC Central Committee in 2004 pointed out that developing democracy within the party was an important part of political restructuring and building of political civilisation in China. ``The CPC would push forward China's political restructuring through reform and improvement of democracy within the party, '' said Li Junru, vice-president of the Party School of the CPC Central Committee. — Xinhua

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