Pioneering Chinese City Offers a Peek at Political Ferment

SHENZHEN, China -- When China decided to liberalize its economy back in the late 1970s, Shenzhen was chosen as the vanguard, the first "special economic zone" allowed to do business free of Communist-era restrictions.

Three decades later, the city has set out to reprise its pioneer role, this time in the political arena. Local Communist Party leaders have drafted a reform plan that would soften key aspects of China's Leninist political system, authorizing expanded powers for the local legislature, direct elections for some local officials, a more independent judiciary, and greater openness and accountability within the party.

The changes advocated by Shenzhen's municipal party committee, published last Tuesday in its official newspaper, show that beneath the ice cap of Communist rule in China, debate about democratization is quietly bubbling. Even if they are never put into practice, the suggested reforms also provide insight into the kinds of changes that China is likely to adopt nationwide if the party ever decides to liberalize politics the way it decided in 1978 to liberalize the economy.

Shenzhen's experiment was drafted over three months by 24 specialized teams assigned by the city party secretary, Liu Yupu, to produce a "breakthrough" reform plan that would turn Shenzhen into "a model city for socialism with Chinese characteristics." Shenzhen party leaders formally approved it June 6.

Huang Weiping, who heads the Contemporary Chinese Politics Research Institute at Shenzhen University, noted that the potentially momentous political ferment in the city has been overshadowed by dramatic events elsewhere in China, including riots in Tibet, the Sichuan earthquake and preparations for the Beijing Olympics. But Huang described the plan as an important shift, gathering in one document various ideas for reform that have arisen in the party in recent years but have never been carried out. The plan set a goal of one or two years for its implementation.

"And this is the first time that the goals of 'socialist democracy' and 'rule of law' are at the very top of the list," Huang added.

Shenzhen, a frenetic city of 10 million bordering Hong Kong, has always been proud of its role in the economic transformation set in motion by the late Deng Xiaoping. Deng's portrait has remained on giant billboards along the city's palm-lined avenues and in the offices of grateful local residents.

Now that the entire country enjoys the free-trade privileges and freedom to pursue affluence pioneered by Shenzhen, it seemed natural to many here that the city should also be the one to model political change. Moreover, the Guangdong provincial party secretary, Wang Yang, has been urging "thought liberation," innovation, and challenges to Hong Kong and Singapore since he took over last fall, interpreted by Shenzhen officials as an invitation to think boldly.

Some officials and political scientists suggested Shenzhen should be made into a "special political zone," just as Deng had made it a special economic zone. That carried the connotation that the city would be free of many of the political constraints imposed by national party leaders in Beijing.

During a visit here at the end of March, Wang said that idea went too far. But he urged Shenzhen to experiment with expanding rule by law and what the party calls "socialist democracy," meaning the party stays in charge. He, too, said the city's leaders should "build a model city of socialism with Chinese characteristics." That formula -- incorporating the official party slogan for China's political system -- had the advantage of encouraging reforms while remaining within the ideological boundaries set by Beijing.

The plan produced by Shenzhen's party leadership nevertheless included some significant proposals. It said, for instance, that the local People's Congress, or legislature, should be given expanded powers to supervise the executive and that its members should be more directly tied to the people they are supposed to represent by expanding the number of candidates in what would become competitive elections.

The judiciary, according to the plan, should "independently exercise its rights to judge and supervise." That would mark a radical departure if put into effect; despite frequent calls for rule by law, the party has retained tight control over the courts.