爱华网IN DECEMBER China’s new Communist Party chief, XiJinping, said something that encouraged advocates of politicalreform. No organisation or individual, he declared, had a“special right to overstep the constitution andlaw”. He was simply quoting the constitution, butsome liberals were encouraged by his praise of the“mighty force” of a documentthe party often ignores. Officials are now warning optimists not toget carried away.
The constitution contains much that liberals admire. It makes nomention of the Communist Party, except in its preamble. It promisesfreedom of speech, of the press, of assembly and of religiousbelief.
Liberal calls for“constitutionalism” mean thatthe document should be above any other law or party edict. InJanuary journalists at a liberal-minded newspaper, SouthernWeekend, staged an unusual strike over the censorship of an articlein praise of constitutionalism. But some in the party are clearlyconcerned about attempts to promote a reform agenda using theconstitution as a shield. Now constitutionalism has come underfire.
The assault began on May 21st with an article in a leading partyjournal by Yang Xiaoqing of Renmin University. The main componentsof constitutionalism, it said, belonged to“capitalism and bourgeois dictatorship, not tosocialist people’s democracy”.It said constitutionalism was“deceptive”: in fact onlypoliticians supported by “big interestgroups” could get elected.
On the following day Global Times, a Beijing newspaper, said thatdebate about constitutionalism was not just a theoretical one. Itwas being used, it said, to negate China’spolitical system and try to turn it into a Western one. Calling forconstitutionalism was in fact unconstitutional.
It is difficult to tell whether Mr Xi himself endorsed the attacks.He has not mentioned constitutionalism but seemed to keep thedebate alive by referring again in February to theconstitution.
However, it is highly unlikely that Mr Xi is on the side of theliberals. In January remarks widely believed to have been made byhim in an internal speech circulated on the internet. He criticisedunnamed people for suggesting that reform meant adopting“Western universalvalues”.
But if the party hopes a few editorials will keep liberals quiet,it is likely to be mistaken. The tirades against constitutionalismhave helped to fuel internet discussion. The word became a toptrending topic on Sina Weibo, China’s equivalentof Twitter. “Protecting the equal rights[conferred by] one person, one vote: that’sconstitutionalism”, wrote Ren Zhiqiang, areal-estate magnate, to his 15m followers on May 27th. Mr Xi may beruing the day he brought up the subject.
