Hardliners try to blur party, State lines

Press, 28 July 1989, Page 9

Hardliners try to blur party, State lines

NZPA-Reuter Peking China’s hardline Communist leaders, having purged their reformist opponents, are trying to roll back a key programme of their former adversaries — a separation of party and State, diplomats said. They said it was too early to predict the outcome of the campaign but the hardline leaders wanted to strengthen China’s ruling Communist Party at the expense of the State. One Western diplomat said there was a “blurring” of State and party responsibilities. "It looks like the clear-line (of separation) idea is out the window.” Since the thirteenth party congress in October, 1987, reformers have pushed for separation of the two to build professionalism within the Government and strengthen its role in reforms begun in 1978. Though the official media has reported that 69 per cent of all central Government officials are party members and the percentage was higher at senior levels, reformers had tried to limit the party’s control over Government. “It is necessary to re-

form the system of party leadership to distinguish between functions of party organisations and those of State organs,” said former Communist Party chief, Zhao Ziyang, in his keynote speech to the congress. “The key to reforming the political structure is the separation of the party and Government.” A Western diplomat said, “This was part of the move towards greater professionalism within the Government. It was supposed to let Government leaders run Government more efficiently.” That has changed since Mr Zhao was ousted as party leader last month and the military cracked down on student protests in Peking. The conservative leadership has quashed hopes of new reform — either political or economic —- and is undermining reforms already in place. Foreign diplomats and Chinese journalists say they hold out little hope for key economic policies such as price reforms or changes in State ownership in the near future. Last week, the Prime Minister, Li Peng, was quoted as saying all levels of Government had to join the party in stepping up

propaganda, a task that had increasingly been removed from most State departments. “Clearly we must learn the lessons of the errors in news and propaganda in our recent struggle,” the People’s Daily quoted Li as saying. “In the future, not only must the party centre and the State Council (Cabinet) strengthen propaganda but party cadres and Government officials at all levels must support work on the ideological front.” Jiang Zemin, who has succeeded Mr Zhao as Communist Party leader, was quoted by the official media as telling Chinese envoys brought back for a pep talk from posts around the world that they should integrate politics with diplomacy. “In handling diplomatic relations attention should be paid not only to economics but also to politics, not only to friendship but to struggle, not only to principles but also to tactics,” he said this month. A Western diplomat described the speech as an attempt to exert greater control over foreign policy. “It is implied criticism that they (Foreign Ministry officials) have been too pragmatic,” he said.