State Council Report On Democratic Governance Emphasizes Communist Party Control

The Chinese government issued a white paper titled "Building of Political Democracy in China" on October 19, according to an International Herald Tribune article on October 19. The white paper justifies Communist Party rule as necessary for political stability, and notes that "Party committees serve as the leadership core over all [government and mass] organizations at the same level . . . and through Party committees and cadres in these organizations, ensure that the Party's policies are carried out . . . Through legal procedures and democratic discussion, Party committees ensure that Party proposals become the will of the state and that candidates recommended by Party organizations become leaders in the institutions of state power."

Although the white paper emphasizes the role of local people's congresses (LPCs) and village and residents committees (VCs, RCs) in allowing Chinese citizens a degree of popular participation in governance, it does not mention the control mechanisms that Chinese officials use to limit the representative nature of these institutions. Party officials use electoral committees to control the selection of candidates for LPC, VC, and RC elections, as noted in the Democratic Governance section of the Commission's 2005 Annual Report. China's LPC electoral structure ensures that rural residents are underrepresented, as noted in a recent Commission topic paper. Although top Chinese leaders have suggested that direct elections could be expanded from the village to township governments, as reported in an article in the September 23 edition of the South China Morning Post, the white paper does not mention this possibility.

The white paper identifies specific governance problems that remain to be addressed, such as that Chinese laws sometimes are not fully observed or enforced, that mechanisms for restraining and supervising the use of official power need further improvement, and that citizen political participation needs to be expanded.