英国最新一期《经济学人》杂志发表文章，就中国国家发改委副主任刘铁男遭撤职查办的消息发表了评论，形容中国当局正试图在不进行政治改革的情况下控制腐败。
Mr Liu is not laughing now
文章首先援引了毛泽东1937年在《矛盾论》一文中撰写的一段话：“党内如果没有矛盾和解决矛盾的思想斗争，党的生命也就停止了。”
文章说，今天，毛泽东所建立的共产党仍然统治着中国。“如果的确是矛盾在起着维持作用，那共产党的统治还看不到尽头。”
但是，刘铁男的被捕表明，技术的发展和公众期望值的变化使得政治矛盾变得更加难以解决，也给共产党的未来带来巨大的不确定因素。
中国新领导人习近平和李克强都多次强调了如果不能制止腐败而可能产生的严重后果，但刘铁男的下台显示，要想在限制独立监督及制衡共产党统治的同时来控制腐败是极为困难的。
反腐与维稳
《经济学人》的文章特别指出，中国的官方媒体并没有为刘铁男辩护，而是对他进行了猛烈的抨击，官方的《中国日报》还形容刘铁男是中国第一个因网络揭发而遭到调查的部级官员。
中国官方的《环球时报》则形容刘铁男的被捕是“微博的胜利”，并且声称包括官员在内的中国社会都接受“非主流网络活动产生的积极作用”。
但就在中国领导人谴责刘铁男的同时，他们仍在继续强调要“维持稳定”。所谓“维持稳定”包含着控制国家媒体、司法和学术机构的一系列措施。
中国的审查制度不允许传播那些质疑当局统治合法性的信息，而包括警察、检察机关和法庭在内的所有司法体系都在党的控制之中。
《经济学人》的文章最后说，观察家担心刘铁男仅仅是习近平希望向老百姓显示自己反腐败决心的牺牲品，而事实上习近平并没有实施更广泛改革的计划。
习近平能否在维持共产党统治的同时满足公众有关保证政府廉洁的要求，这将成为判断他未来执政的重要问题。（BBC)
Corruption
Checked and balanced?
Officials try to rein in corruption without undertaking political reform
May 18th 2013 | BEIJING |From the print editionMr Liu is not laughing now
“IF THERE were no contradictions in the party and no ideological struggles to resolve them,” wrote Mao Zedong in an influential 1937 essay, “the party’s life would come to an end.” Today, the Communist Party that Mao built still rules China, and if contradictions are in fact what sustains it, then the end of party rule is nowhere yet in sight. On the economic front, the contradictions may be resolved. But the recent detention of a senior official shows how technology and changing public expectations have made political contradictions even more difficult to resolve, with big potential implications for the party.
Xinhua, the state news agency, reported on 12th May that the official, Liu Tienan, was being investigated for “suspected serious violations of discipline,” an official euphemism for corruption. Mr Liu was deputy chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the country’s planning body and one of its most powerful agencies.
In this section
- Checked and balanced?
Related topics
China’s new president and party chief, Xi Jinping, and the new prime minister, Li Keqiang, both speak frequently and forcefully about the dire consequences of failing to control corruption. But the circumstances of Mr Liu’s removal show how difficult it will be for China to grapple with its corruption problem while also restricting the development of independent checks and balances on party rule.
Officials have provided no information about the nature of Mr Liu’s alleged wrongdoing but in December he was accused by an investigative reporter of defrauding banks, taking bribes, lying about his academic credentials and making death threats against a former mistress. The reporter, Luo Changping, is a deputy editor of Caijing, a prominent business magazine, but he published his accusations against Mr Liu on Sina Weibo, a popular microblogging platform.
Rather than defending Mr Liu, state-run media have been praising Mr Luo and his brand of citizen journalism. China Daily, a state-run newspaper, said in an editorial that Mr Liu was the first ministerial-level official to be investigated as a result of accusations on the internet. In a similar recent case, Lei Zhengfu, a lower-level official in Chongqing, was removed from his post and charged with corruption after his appearance in a sex tape was exposed by another Chinese blogger.
Global Times, a state-run newspaper, called the detention of Mr Liu a “victory for Weibo” and said on May 13th that Chinese society, including officials, accepts “the positive impact brought by non-mainstream online activities”.
But even as Chinese leaders moved against Mr Liu, they have continued to stress the need to “maintain stability.” Under this catchphrase falls a wide range of measures aimed at controlling the nation’s media, judiciary and academic institutions. Censors limit the circulation of information that calls into question the judgment or legitimacy of the regime. All elements of the legal system—police, prosecutors and courts—are subject to party control. The party proscribes entire realms of inquiry at universities.
On 10th May the South China Morning Post, a Hong Kong newspaper, reported on a new directive listing seven subjects that Chinese universities should refrain from discussing. Among them were freedom of the press, an independent judiciary, universal values and civil rights.
The Communist Party has also warned its officials in a directive to guard against “viewpoints and theories proclaimed in the West”. Several Chinese cities have held meetings to discuss the directive, issued by the national party leadership, giving guidance on “ideological work”. A local party body in Chongqing posted, and then deleted, an online report on one such meeting that included references to “seven prominent issues” but did not list them. It urged “sober awareness” of the “intensity” and “complexity” of the current ideological struggle.
The government is clearly allowing a little more media oversight, but observers worry that Mr Liu was a sacrifice to persuade people that Mr Xi is serious about combating corruption, when in fact he has no plans for broader institutional reform. Whether he can satisfy popular demands for cleaner government while maintaining party control may be the contradiction that comes to define his time in power.
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