China's Communist Party to deepen reforms
2003-06-30

Category Political Issues People Jiang Zemin Event China Political Reform

BEIJING - China's Communist Party pledged on Monday, the eve of the anniversary of its foundation, to deepen cultural reforms to free authors, artists and actors from dogmatic Marxist thinking.

Li Changchun, a member of the all powerful, nine-man Politburo Standing Committee, urged that those in the cultural realm be "liberated from the mistaken and dogmatic understanding of Marxism," said the People's Daily, the party's mouthpiece.

Li, who oversees ideology and is seen as liberal compared with his predecessors, was also quoted as saying cultural enterprises should come up with "more good, fine works of art."

Political analysts said the 82-year-old party was keen to build a following in the face of competition from Hollywood movies and foreign media since China joined the World Trade Organisation in late 2001.

But Wu Guoguang of the Chinese University of Hong Kong said the party was unlikely to ease its grip on ideology if movies, television series and other cultural mediums dwelt on politics.

The party's propaganda tsars tightened the noose on the media in June following a brief period of relative freedom during the SARS epidemic when the press was allowed wider scope to report on the disease after authorities initially tried to cover it up.

They suspended publication of the Beijing Xinbao tabloid and pulled the plug on the popular television series, "Marching Towards the Republic," because it might have been seen as an allegory of current politics.

The People's Daily did not give details of the promised reform package, but said it was aimed at "promoting the prosperous development of cultural enterprises and the cultural industry."

The newspaper did not say whether more foreign investment would be allowed as part of deepened reforms expected to cover movies, television, media, drama and books.

Chinese sources say Communist Party chief Hu Jintao is expected to mark the party's July 1 birthday with a speech and may touch on "inner party democracy."

The new leadership under Hu, who took over the presidency in March, has been shifting away from dogma.

But Hu, still struggling to emerge from the shadow of his predecessor Jiang Zemin, is unlikely to flirt with Western-style democracy, analysts say.

Cultural enterprises have been forced them to fend for themselves after the cash-strapped party stopped funding them in the 1990s.

"Cultural reform is likely to shrink staff numbers further. This possibility is bigger. It'll ease the burden on the state," Wu, the China watcher, said. Reuters