China would benefit from Zhao's beliefs

In his secretly taped memoirs, Zhao said that in 1989, when he was the party leader, he did not “think that the Communist Party's ruling position should change.” However, he did think that “the way it governed had to be changed” and, instead of “rule by men” there should be “rule of law.”

However, after years of contemplation, his position changed radically. “The Western parliamentary democratic system,” he decided, was superior to Communist party rule. “Almost all developed nations have adopted a parliamentary democracy,” he wrote. “Why is there not even one developed nation practicing any other system?”

If China does not adopt such a system, he argued, it would be faced with such problems as commercialization of power, rampant corruption, a society polarized between rich and poor.

All this, of course, is contrary to Deng's vision for China, which is shared by the country's current leaders. To them, a parliamentary system, with checks and balances, must be avoided at all costs.

But even if China's leaders today cannot accept Zhao's ultimate conclusions, they can learn from some of his other ideas.

Zhao pointed out that the Chinese constitution is good but the problem is “there were no laws in place to support its implementation. That is why many of the citizens' rights defined in the constitution could not be realized.”

That is an accurate description of the situation today. The constitution, for example, declares in Article 35: “Citizens of the People's Republic of China enjoy freedom of speech, of the press, of assembly, of association, of procession and of demonstration.”

This sounds very good in principle; in practice, however, Chinese citizens do not enjoy such freedoms. No laws have been enacted to implement these principles. Beijing has in recent years highlighted its support for human rights by putting into the constitution a clause that says, “The State respects and preserves human rights.”

However, saying it is one thing, putting it into practice is another. Legislation is needed to ensure that rights and freedoms stipulated in the constitution are observed in real life. If China's leaders are willing to accept this one idea from Zhao, it would greatly improve the lot of the Chinese people.

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