Dissident Fang Jue on the Fourth Plenary Meeting of the 16th Communist Party Congress: Accelerating China's Development, Reform, and Opening (remarks in Chinese)

September 27, 2004

This commentary published on the Boxun Website by dissident Fang Jue argues that China must not limit democratization to the inner-Party democracy emphasized in the recent plenary meeting. The drafters of the anti-corruption regulations issued by the Party last winter hoped to use inner-Party democracy to avoid concentration of power in the hands of potentially corrupt Party bosses. Fang points out that even if a perfect democracy could be constructed inside the Party, it would include only 5% of the population. To be able to join the mainstream of the great nations of the world, says Fang, the government must start now to broaden reform and open communications with all progressive forces inside China. Fang Jue was formerly a vice director of the planning commission in Fuzhou Province. He wrote "China Needs a New Transformation: Program Proposals of the Democratic Faction," released to the media in 1998, which presented the views of progressives in the CCP. Detained shortly thereafter, Fang was ultimately sentenced to four years in prison. Fang was released in July, 2002, but detained again, this time by the National Security Police in October. In January, 2003, Fang Jue was released and now resides in the United States.