Pakistanis angry over detentions in Times Sq. case Monday, May 24, 2010
ISLAMABAD – Relatives of three men detained by Pakistan for alleged links to the suspect in the attempted Times Square bombing say the men are innocent.
They
AFP - Thursday, August 6TAIPEI (AFP) - - Taiwan's Beijing-friendly government on Wednesday denied boycotting an Australian film festival amid a row over the e
BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel suffered a double blow on Thursday as a senior party ally in east German
Minister seeks closure of anti-Berlusconi websites Wednesday, December 16, 2009
ROME (AFP) - – The Italian government moved Tuesday to close down Internet sites encouraging further violence against Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who
By ELAINE KURTENBACH,AP Business Writer AP - Wednesday, March 18SHANGHAI - Asia's stock market rally seemed to be running out of steam Wednesday, despite an
Edition:
U.S.
Africa
Arabic
Argentina
Brazil
Canada
China
France
Germany
India
Italy
Japan
Latin America
Mexico
Russia
Spain
United Kingdom
Home
Business
Business Home
Economy
Technology
Media
Small Business
Green Business
Legal
Deals
Earnings
Summits
Business Video
Markets
Markets Home
U.S. Markets
European Markets
Asian Markets
Global Market Data
Indices
M&A
Stocks
Bonds
Currencies
Commodities
Futures
Funds
peHUB
World
World Home
U.S.
Brazil
China
Euro Zone
Japan
Mexico
Russia
Afghan Journal
Africa Journal
India Insight
Global News Journal
Pakistan: Now or Never?
World Video
Politics
Politics Home
Front Row Washington
Politics Video
Technology
Technology Home
MediaFile
Science
Tech Video
Opinion
Opinion Home
Chrystia Freeland
Felix Salmon
Jack Shafer
Breakingviews
George Chen
Bernd Debusmann
Gregg Easterbrook
James Pethokoukis
James Saft
John Wasik
Christopher Whalen
Ian Bremmer
Mohamed El-Erian
Lawrence Summers
The Great Debate
Unstructured Finance
Newsmaker
MuniLand
Money
Money Home
Analyst Research
Global Investing
MuniLand
Reuters Money
Alerts
Watchlist
Portfolio
Stock Screener
Fund Screener
Personal Finance Video
Life & Culture
Health
Sports
Arts
Faithworld
Business Traveler
Left Field
Entertainment
Oddly Enough
Lifestyle Video
Pictures
Pictures Home
Reuters Photographers
Full Focus
Video
Article
Comments (1)
Full Focus
Editor's choice
A selection of our best photos from the past 48 hours. Full Article
Follow Reuters
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
YouTube
Read
"L Word" star booted off plane over kissing dispute
26 Sep 2011
In letter, Knox says is tired, thinks of Seattle
25 Sep 2011
UPDATE 1-Particles found to break speed of light
22 Sep 2011
Libyan interim government forces close in on Sirte
|
26 Sep 2011
World stocks bounce on hopes for euro zone action
|
2:22am EDT
Discussed
107
Particles recorded moving faster than light: CERN
90
House unexpectedly defeats spending bill
73
UPDATE 1-Particles found to break speed of light
Watched
Heathrow moves forward with pod cars
Mon, Sep 26 2011
Boeing Dreamliner comes true
Mon, Sep 26 2011
Human skin strengthened with spider silk can stop a bullet
Tue, Sep 20 2011
Insight: Blunt talk from China ex-premier stirs reform pot
Tweet
Share this
Email
Print
Related News
UPDATE 4-Hundreds protest in south China over land grab
Fri, Sep 23 2011
China steps up condemnation of U.S. over Taiwan arms
Thu, Sep 22 2011
Insight: Looming U.S. decision on Taiwan risks China rift
Fri, Sep 16 2011
Analysis: China seeks to tether the microblog tiger
Fri, Sep 16 2011
World Bank chief says world economy in danger zone
Wed, Sep 14 2011
Analysis & Opinion
Who fills the global power vacuum?
Washington’s long con
Related Topics
World »
China »
By Chris Buckley
BEIJING |
Tue Sep 27, 2011 2:03am EDT
BEIJING (Reuters) - Crumbling flood dykes in China decried as "tofu dregs" built by "parasites." Erring bankers lashed as "half-wits" and crime "accomplices." Special hotels for Communist Party elite dismissed as wasteful piles of "golden splendor."
It is little wonder that the publication this month of former Premier Zhu Rongji's blunt comments from his years in power have become best-sellers, finding eager readers in a nation whose current leaders are seen as wary and cautious.
Yet the reaction to Zhu's four-volume selection from his time as vice premier from 1991 to 1998 and then as premier until early 2003 also reflects deeper anxieties coursing through China as it approaches a leadership transition late next year.
Reformist former officials and intellectuals have held up the 2,042 pages of Zhu's words, many made public for the first time, as an unflattering mirror to the conservatism and conformism of current leaders. Magazine editors and Internet users have scoured the volumes for any comments that offer a message for the present.
"If this government is one of yes-men, we owe the people an apology," is one from 1998 that has spread far online.
Another Zhu comment, this time from 2001: "I've been in charge of the economy for a decade, and still today 68 percent of state-owned businesses cook their books. I should be the first official dismissed."
Indeed, many of the problems that dog China's economy today dominate "The Authentic Speeches of Zhu Rongji": local government debt and reckless bank loans, inflation and feverish urban growth, and corruption devouring public trust and coffers.
"Our country faces many potential crises that could erupt at any time," Zhu said early in 1998. "Ordinary people are discontent about us in many ways. Especially, there is corruption among officials, the gulf between rich and poor, and the way some local officials act like tyrants."
Analysts disagree over whether Zhu, a grey-haired 82-year-old who rarely appears in public, issued his long-prepared collection at this time to obliquely scold China's current Communist leaders, President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao, whose terms in power wind down late next year, and to urge their likely successors to do more.
"I would say, yes, he has intended this to send a message. He has used opportunities before to implicitly criticize the current government," said Zheng Yongnian, the director of the East Asian Institute at the National University of Singapore who wrote an earlier study of Zhu.
Even if the timing of publication is coincidence, the enthusiasm for Zhu's books reflects widespread impatience among many Chinese with their current leaders, said Chen Ziming, a Beijing-based political analyst who was imprisoned after 1989 for advocating democratic change.
Recent seminars, books and commentaries have echoed with a broad feeling among thinkers, both pro-market reform liberals and pro-party conservatives, that China's problems will demand more decisive responses from the next leadership, mostly likely led by current Vice President Xi Jinping, said Chen.
"Zhu did things, made breakthroughs, and there's a widespread feeling that the current leaders haven't followed his example," said Chen.
"I don't see this is directed personally at Wen Jiabao," he said of Zhu's books. "But Wen's calls for political reform have gotten nowhere, he hasn't had the influence to act on his ideas, and so there's nostalgia for Zhu Rongji and his style."
HISTORY LESSONS
Growing numbers of retired Chinese leaders have published books and memoirs with an eye on their place in history. Although party censors can block some content, seniority gives these leaders some sway over what they publish and when.
Zhu's collection offers a revealing but highly selective window into the reforms that transformed China from a beleaguered hold-out against the collapse of Soviet-style Communism in the early 1990s to an emerging superpower with economic growth rates envied by other governments.
Zhu dragged back the Chinese economy from over-heating in the early 1990s, and then as premier pushed through reforms that shut or privatized many state-owned firms and laid off workers, wrenched tax power from local officials to the central government, and launched housing ownership reforms that gave birth to a feverish real-estate boom.
Above all, Zhu coaxed and cajoled China's way into the World Trade Organization in 2002 through grueling negotiations. At the time, many Chinese officials feared he had made so many concessions to gain entry that China's economy would be hobbled.
By no means do all Chinese observers think Zhu's tenure was an unalloyed success. Some say mis-steps in grains policy, tax distribution and state factory shutdowns left messes that his successors had to clean up in quieter ways.
But with the publication of Zhu's books, liberal intellectuals and publications favoring market reform and political relaxation have cited him to suggest his successors failed to live up to his boldness and their promises.
That disillusionment is often aimed at President Hu and Premier Wen, whom critics say have failed to meet promises to rein in inequality and spread prosperity. Despite Wen's repeated calls for political reform, the Communist Party leadership has overseen tightening controls on political life.
"Zhu Rongji's work has become so popular, not specifically because of what he has done, but because of his leadership style and the progress he was able to make," said Zheng, the researcher based in Singapore.
"There's impatience, because there's been no progress, no substantial, meaningful progress, from this current leadership."
Others already have their eye on the next generation.
Zhou Ruijin, a former senior editor of the People's Daily, the Communist Party's official newspaper, suggested in a recent interview about Zhu's works that the leaders likely to succeed Hu and Wen had much to learn from Zhu.
"The Zhu Rongji era was one of promoting big reforms, and it nurtured a group of brave risk-takers who were at the forefront of pioneering a market economy," Zhou, a cheerleader for rapid market reforms in the 1990s, said in an interview with South Breeze Window, a pro-reform magazine published in south China.
"Today, with the atmosphere for reform deepening, there is still potential for big steps in reform."
(Editing by Brian Rhoads and Raju Gopalakrishnan)
World
China
Tweet this
Link this
Share this
Digg this
Email
Reprints
We welcome comments that advance the story through relevant opinion, anecdotes, links and data. If you see a comment that you believe is irrelevant or inappropriate, you can flag it to our editors by using the report abuse links. Views expressed in the comments do not represent those of Reuters. For more information on our comment policy, see http://blogs.reuters.com/fulldisclosure/2010/09/27/toward-a-more-thoughtful-conversation-on-stories/
Comments (1)
Wantunbiasednew wrote:
I’m everyday more amazed by sophistication and marvelous work done by Chinese leaders. Book of former premier will again be the bestseller of the year, envy of any world leadership. Even at 80+ this Man serves the country, no doubt every word published was 3 times analyzed before.
What is still more amazing is that Western mass media could be used to strengthen CCP leadership. Most young Chinese speak or learn English. They have access to Western on-line media. Two articles of Reuters, CNN China-bashing daily and if I were Chinese, I would vote for CCP, knowing its faults, out of pure patriotism.
Sep 27, 2011 3:40am EDT -- Report as abuse
See All Comments »
Add Your Comment
Social Stream (What's this?)
Edition:
U.S.
Africa
Arabic
Argentina
Brazil
Canada
China
France
Germany
India
Italy
Japan
Latin America
Mexico
Russia
Spain
United Kingdom
Back to top
Reuters.com
Business
Markets
World
Politics
Technology
Opinion
Money
Pictures
Videos
Site Index
Legal
Bankruptcy Law
California Legal
New York Legal
Securities Law
Support & Contact
Contact Us
Advertise With Us
Connect with Reuters
Twitter
Facebook
LinkedIn
RSS
Podcast
Newsletters
Mobile
About
Privacy Policy
Terms of Use
Our Flagship financial information platform incorporating Reuters Insider
An ultra-low latency infrastructure for electronic trading and data distribution
A connected approach to governance, risk and compliance
Our next generation legal research platform
Our global tax workstation
Thomsonreuters.com
About Thomson Reuters
Investor Relations
Careers
Contact Us
Thomson Reuters is the world's largest international multimedia news agency, providing investing news, world news, business news, technology news, headline news, small business news, news alerts, personal finance, stock market, and mutual funds information available on Reuters.com, video, mobile, and interactive television platforms. Thomson Reuters journalists are subject to an Editorial Handbook which requires fair presentation and disclosure of relevant interests.
NYSE and AMEX quotes delayed by at least 20 minutes. Nasdaq delayed by at least 15 minutes. For a complete list of exchanges and delays, please click here.