Top party leaders will of course be at the top of your interview wish list this month. But no one, least of all officials in the upper echelons, will agree to an interview ahead of this key political session. It’s possible Hu Jintao will choose to visit with some particular foreign news icon, as Deng Xiaoping did with Oriana Fallaci and Jiang Zemin with Mike Wallace.
But most foreign journalists will have to settle for Chinese academics, political experts and historians. Here are a few at the top of our list:
Wang Guixiu (王贵秀) – A professor at the Central Party School, Wang is the most important scholar of political reform in China. Wang has criticized China’s lagging political reform efforts. [Wang on separation of party and government].
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Xie Tao (谢韜) – Xie is former vice-president of Renmin University of China and a leading Marxist theorist. At the beginning of this year, an important journal, Chronicles of History (炎黄春秋), published Xie’s essay, “Only Democratic Socialism Can Save China” (只有民主社会主义可以救中国). The essay sparked debate in China’s intellectual circles over political reform.
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Gao Fang (高放) – A professor at Renmin University of China, Gao is China’s leading historian of the Communist movement. He was a major proponent of inner-party democracy (党内民主) during the political reform movement of the 1980s.
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Dong Degang (董德刚) – Dong is vice-director of the philosophy research division (哲学教研部) of China’s Central Party School. Earlier Dong Degang (董德刚) – Dong is vice-director of the philosophy research division (哲学教研部) of China’s Central Party School. An article by scholar Dong Degang (董德刚) in the March issue of the official magazine Scientific Socialism (科学社会主义) suggested a number of cadres, “including high-level officials and old comrades”, were wary of attempts to modify the party’s constitution at each CCP plenary session, and urged a cautious approach to adding President Hu’s theory of “scientific development” (科学发展观) to the Party Constitution. [More coverage from CMP].
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Wang Changjiang (王长江) – Director of the Party Building Division (党建部) of the Central Party School, Wang wrote an essay in May this year called, “Answering a Few Misgivings About Issues Concerning Democracy” (辨析关于民主问题的几个疑虑). The article, published in Beijing Daily, argued that democratization could happen even under a one-party system.
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Zhou Tianyong (周天勇) – Vice-Director of the Research Office of the Central Party School, Zhou is also one of several authors of the Party School’s “Political Reform Research Report” (政治体制改革研究报告), which has been published in book form as Political Reform in China.
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Yu Keping (俞可平) – A political scientist who currently serves as deputy director of China’s Central Compilation and Translation Bureau, Yu drew attention this year with an essay called, “Democracy is a Good Thing.” Many regard Yu Keping as a key thinker in the Hu-Wen administration.
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Wu Jiaxiang (吴稼祥) – Now a freelance writer, Wu worked in the General Office of the CPC Central Committee in the 1980s and was regarded a key thinker behind then-Premier Zhao Ziyang. Wu was jailed following the crackdown on democracy demonstrators in June 1989. He later spent time as a fellow at Harvard University. Wu’s books include Wrestling for Power: The 16th CPC Congress (角力十六大) and Diary from Zhongnanhai: The Fall of Two Generational Heirs (中南海日记：中共两代王储的陨落).
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Wu Guoguang (吴国光) – Now a member of the history faculty at Canada’s University of Victoria, Wu was closely involved in policy-making on political reform under Zhao Ziyang in the 1980s. He is the author of Zhao Ziyang and Political Reform (赵紫阳与政治改革).
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Luo Shugang (雒树刚) – Formerly deputy director of China’s Central Propaganda Department and head of the official Xinhua News Agency, Luo is a key researcher in the area of political reform. In the 1980s he published two books on political reform: Political Reform Made Simple (政治体制改革通俗讲话) and Monitoring Within the Party (党内监督).
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(Qian Gang, October 9, 2007)
[Translated by David Bandurski]
Previous 17th Congress article: “To what extent will delegates to the party congress have a say in party affairs?”