Econintersect: In an uncharacteristic candor, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabo warned in a press conference on Wednesday, March 14, 2012 that China risks another tragedy like cultural revolution unless both economic and political reforms are carried out. Xinhua the official Chinese agency quotes Wen Jiabo warning:
“Reforms in China have come to a critical stage; without a successful political reform, it’s impossible for China to fully institute economic reform and the gains made in these areas may be lost. New problems that popped up in the Chinese society will not be fundamentally resolved, and such historical tragedies as the Cultural Revolution may happen again in China….
…People must always bury in mind China’s national circumstances and develop the socialist democracy in a step-by-step manner.
In a dramatic reversal of the current top down command process Wen advocates a bottoms up process:
“China will unswervingly implement the rural villagers’ self-governance system and protect their legitimate rights of direct election. The practices at many villages showed farmers can succeed in directly electing villagers’ committees.”
In a frontal attack of the arm twisting Maoists methods he goes on to add :
“I believe China’s democracy will develop in a step-by-step manner according to the national circumstances and the trend is unstoppable by any force.”
“We should encourage people to follow the path to experiment boldly and withstand tests in practice”
