Central Govt Criticizes Shanghai for “Streak of Independen

[ala]

Central Government Criticizes Shanghai for Its “Streak of Independence”

By Luo Bing, The Trend Magazine, June Issue

Jul 01, 2004

On the May 28, China’s most powerful body, the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) held a meeting to request local governments to “toe the line” on central Party leadership and regulation. Wu Guanzheng and Premier Wen Jiabao singled out officials from Shanghai and Jiangsu province. This comes after repeated calls from the central authority for local governments to step into line.

From April to June this year, many high ranking Party officials including the President, the Premier, members of the Standing Committee, the Deputy Premier and the Secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the CPC traveled to many parts of eastern and northern China, meeting with local officials and warning against rising local independence and dogmatic adherence to certain doctrines. Chen Liangyu, the Secretary of the Municipal Party Committee of Shanghai and Li Chaoyuan, the Secretary of Province Party Committee of Jiangsu, were singled out for special attention.

At the May 28 meeting, President Hu Jintao said that some unrest had always existed between local governments and the central authority, but that in recent times, local demands for more economic and financial power and the desire to assert their own direction and policy, have severely affect the operation of the national system. Hu Jintao quoted data from a joint survey report just finished by the Academy of Social Science of China, Academy of Social Science of Beijing and Research Office of State Council. The report estimates the losses from bureaucratic corruption, duplicated projects and waste of energy and material at 12 to 15 percent of GDP in the middle 1980s, 15 to 18 percent of GDP in the 1990s and over 22 percent in 2002.

Wu Guanzheng reiterated the view of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau saying that the current outstanding economic and financial problems must be rectified from the core and the incidences of rising “localism” must be addressed. He pointed out that in some places the situation had degenerated to the point that a situation called, a “multi-central” system was occurring. The Political Bureau believes that this is an issue of discipline. It will allow the local authorities some time to correct their wayward tendencies themselves, but reserves its right to implement organizational changes to combat the problem.

In his criticism of the Jiangsu and Shanghai officials, Wu said that they should not become complacent with their local “successes” as there really is noone who will stand up for them and protect them. Wu said that many other cities are looking up to Shanghai and copying its actions, but if it sets a bad example, then who is going to shoulder the blame? The struggle in Shanghai in particular is of special note as it is regarded as the main power base for former President Jiang Zemin, who still controls the Military Commission. There is a long simmering struggle for power between Jiang and current President Hu.