Hu backs reform, economic transformation in Shenzhen

“We must make courageous reforms ... as well as avoid rigidity and stagnation,” Chinese President Hu Jintao said on a visit to the city to mark the 30th anniversary of Shenzhen's establishment as a “special economic zone” in 1980.

The ruling Communist Party's “great, unprecedented step” to allow Shenzhen to act as one of the first experimentation grounds helped catalyze China's rise from a centrally planned economy into a global economic powerhouse, Hu said.

Hu said the Party would keep backing economic and political reforms in special economic zones like Shenzhen, where aged Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping made a landmark visit in 1992, re-igniting the country's market economic reforms.

Hu said that by embarking on “brave exploration” in their roles as “first movers”, such regions would be key drivers for what is now the world's second-largest economy, by some measures.

“We must not only maintain the special economic zones ... but make them better,” said Hu. Shenzhen's economy has grown a blistering 25.8 percent annually over the past three decades.

Once a cluster of poor villages amid rice paddies across the border from Hong Kong, Shenzhen has grown into a metropolis of nine million, getting its start from a flood of investment from its affluent neighbor.

While Hu's speech stopped short of giving specific reform proposals, he spoke of a need for “bold experiments.”

Economically, this would include more focus on technological innovation and the upgrading of rusting industrial belts in Shenzhen and other export hubs to more advanced manufacturing and high-end services.

Political Reforms

Hu also called for “democratic elections in accordance with the law, democratic policy decisions, democratic management and democratic oversight,” a reference to greater internal debate within the Party, rather than a promise of universal suffrage.

Hu's speech comes on the heels of one made by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, who made a high-profile call last month in Shenzhen for China to pursue political reform to safeguard its economic health.

Some Chinese media have begun calling for Shenzhen to evolve into a zone for experimenting with administrative reforms and even political liberalization to place more public oversight on officials.

Shenzhen's former mayor, Xu Zongheng, was arrested and removed last year in a scandal over “serious disciplinary violations” in a web of public graft.

“Reforms in China have reached the point at which political reform is critical to further progress,” wrote the Chinese magazine Caixin, run by prominent media commentator Hu Shuli.

On the Internet, too, a manifesto urging deeper political reform in Shenzhen has attracted attention. The author, Guo Zhongxiao, argued that Shenzhen's failure to allow political reforms had caused instability and slowed plans for industrial upgrading and improving conditions for factory workers.

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