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HONG KONG Communist Party cadres have filled meeting halls around China to hear a somber, secretive warning issued by senior leaders. Power could escape their grip, they are being told, unless the party eradicates seven subversive currents coursing through Chinese society.
These seven perils were enumerated in a memo referred to as Document No. 9 that bears the unmistakable imprimatur of Xi Jinping, Chinas new top leader. The first was Western constitutional democracy; others included promoting universal values of human rights, Western-inspired notions of media independence and civil society, ardently pro-market neo-liberalism, and nihilist criticisms of the partys traumatic past.
Even as Mr. Xi has sought to ready some reforms to expose Chinas economy to stronger market forces, he has undertaken a mass line campaign to enforce party authority that goes beyond the partys periodic calls for discipline. The internal warnings to cadres shows that Mr. Xis confident public face has been accompanied by fears that the party is vulnerable to an economic slowdown, public anger about corruption and challenges from liberals impatient for political change.
Western forces hostile to China and dissidents within the country are still constantly infiltrating the ideological sphere, says Document No. 9, the number given to it by the central party office that issued it in April. It has not been openly published, but a version was shown to The New York Times and was verified by four sources close to senior officials, including an editor with a party newspaper.
Opponents of one-party rule, it says, have stirred up trouble about disclosing officials assets, using the Internet to fight corruption, media controls and other sensitive topics, to provoke discontent with the party and government.
The warnings were not idle. Since the circular was issued, party-run publications and Web sites have vehemently denounced constitutionalism and civil society, notions that were not considered off limits in recent years. Officials have intensified efforts to block access to critical views on the Internet. Two prominent rights advocates have been detained in the past few weeks, in what their supporters have called a blow to the rights defense movement, which was already beleaguered under Mr. Xis predecessor, Hu Jintao.
Mr. Xis hard line has disappointed Chinese liberals, some of whom once hailed his rise to power as an opportunity to push for political change after a long period of stagnation. Instead, Mr. Xi has signaled a shift to a more conservative, traditional leftist stance with his rectification campaign to ensure discipline and conspicuous attempts to defend the legacy of Mao Zedong. That has included a visit to a historic site where Mao undertook one of his own attempts to remake the ruling party in the 1950s.
Mr. Xis edicts have been disseminated in a series of compulsory study sessions across the country, like one in the southern province of Hunan that was recounted on a local government Web site.
Promotion of Western constitutional democracy is an attempt to negate the partys leadership, Cheng Xinping, a deputy head of propaganda for Hengyang, a city in Hunan, told a gathering of mining industry officials. Human rights advocates, he continued, want ultimately to form a force for political confrontation.
Analysts say the campaign carries some risks for Mr. Xi, who has acknowledged that the slowing economy needs new, more market-driven momentum that can come only from a relaxation of state influence.
The condemnations of constitutional government have prompted dismayed opposition from liberal intellectuals and even some moderate-minded former officials. The campaign has also exhilarated leftist defenders of party orthodoxy, many of whom pointedly oppose the sort of market reforms that Mr. Xi and Prime Minister Li Keqiang have said are needed.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/20/w...?hp&_r=0&gwh=A632FBEE49B0CA2D7053D145F7D7BE2C
These seven perils were enumerated in a memo referred to as Document No. 9 that bears the unmistakable imprimatur of Xi Jinping, Chinas new top leader. The first was Western constitutional democracy; others included promoting universal values of human rights, Western-inspired notions of media independence and civil society, ardently pro-market neo-liberalism, and nihilist criticisms of the partys traumatic past.
Even as Mr. Xi has sought to ready some reforms to expose Chinas economy to stronger market forces, he has undertaken a mass line campaign to enforce party authority that goes beyond the partys periodic calls for discipline. The internal warnings to cadres shows that Mr. Xis confident public face has been accompanied by fears that the party is vulnerable to an economic slowdown, public anger about corruption and challenges from liberals impatient for political change.
Western forces hostile to China and dissidents within the country are still constantly infiltrating the ideological sphere, says Document No. 9, the number given to it by the central party office that issued it in April. It has not been openly published, but a version was shown to The New York Times and was verified by four sources close to senior officials, including an editor with a party newspaper.
Opponents of one-party rule, it says, have stirred up trouble about disclosing officials assets, using the Internet to fight corruption, media controls and other sensitive topics, to provoke discontent with the party and government.
The warnings were not idle. Since the circular was issued, party-run publications and Web sites have vehemently denounced constitutionalism and civil society, notions that were not considered off limits in recent years. Officials have intensified efforts to block access to critical views on the Internet. Two prominent rights advocates have been detained in the past few weeks, in what their supporters have called a blow to the rights defense movement, which was already beleaguered under Mr. Xis predecessor, Hu Jintao.
Mr. Xis hard line has disappointed Chinese liberals, some of whom once hailed his rise to power as an opportunity to push for political change after a long period of stagnation. Instead, Mr. Xi has signaled a shift to a more conservative, traditional leftist stance with his rectification campaign to ensure discipline and conspicuous attempts to defend the legacy of Mao Zedong. That has included a visit to a historic site where Mao undertook one of his own attempts to remake the ruling party in the 1950s.
Mr. Xis edicts have been disseminated in a series of compulsory study sessions across the country, like one in the southern province of Hunan that was recounted on a local government Web site.
Promotion of Western constitutional democracy is an attempt to negate the partys leadership, Cheng Xinping, a deputy head of propaganda for Hengyang, a city in Hunan, told a gathering of mining industry officials. Human rights advocates, he continued, want ultimately to form a force for political confrontation.
Analysts say the campaign carries some risks for Mr. Xi, who has acknowledged that the slowing economy needs new, more market-driven momentum that can come only from a relaxation of state influence.
The condemnations of constitutional government have prompted dismayed opposition from liberal intellectuals and even some moderate-minded former officials. The campaign has also exhilarated leftist defenders of party orthodoxy, many of whom pointedly oppose the sort of market reforms that Mr. Xi and Prime Minister Li Keqiang have said are needed.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/20/w...?hp&_r=0&gwh=A632FBEE49B0CA2D7053D145F7D7BE2C
