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New Recruit
Ng Tze-wei
Mar 19, 2011
The heads of the Communist Party's political and legislative affairs committees - responsible for ensuring the party line is toed by police, prosecutors, judges and lawyers - are usually considered an ultra-conservative lot.
But Li Jiang , the 60-year-old secretary-general of the provincial committee in Hunan , was happy to cover a range of issues in an interview on the sidelines of the annual session of the National People's Congress in Beijing, touching on everything from democracy to "evil cults".
"I believe the political system we have today is chosen by history and our people, and is most appropriate for our country," Li said. "However, if we do not opt for a multiparty system, we must think about ways to avoid problems that could potentially arise under one-party rule.
"For me the key to building our own democratic political system is how to resolve the problem of `few voters, few candidates', how to get the best talent elected, and how to supervise officials ... in particular we must strengthen supervision by the public and the media."
Li, vice-chairman of the Hunan People's Congress Standing Committee and a former provincial propaganda chief, also addressed a top criticism of officials in his position: the practice of officials heading political and legislative affairs panels and police forces at the same time, which many say leads to abuse of power by police. Li is one such official.
"The Central Organisation Department issued an order banning this practice last year, in order to create a fairer legal system," Li said, the first time an official had confirmed the ban. "But in most cases we are still looking for replacements, or waiting for the next change of guard. I believe all changes will be completed within one or two years."
Li plans to resign as police chief at the next provincial People's Congress Standing Committee meeting later this month, or by May at the latest.
He was keen to talk about the call for "innovative social governance", which he denied was sparked by concerns over rising social conflict.
"This cannot be narrowly understood as a problem of maintaining stability, even though maintaining stability is one major goal," Li said.
Since reform and opening up began, privatisation has seen many previously state-owned employers shed their social role in providing services such as housing, schooling and pensions, and the relationship between citizens and the government has become more complex, requiring a new model of social governance.
Li said the mainland needed to make better use of non-governmental organisations for things that "the government can't manage, shouldn't manage, or doesn't manage well".
However, when asked whether the tight registration requirements for NGOs should be relaxed, he said the dual-track registration process for "sensitive" NGOs, such as those with religious backgrounds, would remain.
"Of course, in the development of social organisations there exists the need for a process of adjustment ... this is a new task for our country. We don't have experience," Li said.
He said charities and service-type NGOs would be more readily promoted, and political and religious organisations subjected to strict regulation.
"I'm not saying that political and religious NGOs cannot develop ... but many political and religious organisations, especially those from overseas, have carried out activities in China that broke the law," Li said.
"We cannot allow evil cults to enter China in the name of religion; and we cannot allow organisations who want to subvert [our government] to enter in the name of religion. The civil affairs departments will continue to be the main body in charge of NGO registration, but other departments will also assist."
He was less sceptical of foreign intervention when it comes to police force regulation, saying Hunan's police force was the first to adopt a detailed police handbook - based on the Hong Kong Police Force General Orders, and experience from other developed countries.
From how to make a report to superiors once an emergency call is received at a police station, to having at least two policemen at interrogation sessions and legal intervals for delivery of water and food to suspects, the handbook tries to set out specific instructions for police.
On complaints that people increasingly find themselves involved in confrontations with people who dress like police, Li said that more needed to be done to ensure that people could distinguish between police officers and other law enforcement officers. He suggested urban management officers and toll officers be banned from wearing uniforms that look like police uniforms.
But he defended the use of assistant police, who are legally restrained in their power to operate independently but are not subject to the same strict regulations as proper police. He said that by world standards, the mainland's ratio of police to the population is low.
"For example, Hong Kong has seven million people, and about 30,000 to 40,000 policemen. Our population in Hunan is 10 times Hong Kong's population, but we only have 70,000 police," Li said. "And we are now talking about cutting government expenditure. So hiring a lot of proper policemen will not be possible in the short term."
Li said he was in close contact with Hong Kong's Independent Commission Against Corruption and the mainland should give its anti-corruption bodies, such as the Communist Party's central disciplinary commission and the Ministry of Supervision, more independence.
At this year's NPC meeting, Li urged the introduction of new identity cards, including biometric data such as fingerprints. "This will not only help combat crime, but also protect citizens' rights," Li said. He said a smart identity card could make it easier to regulate migrant workers and speed up the abolition of the hukou (household registration) system, which restricts their access to social services.
On the legislative front, Li said the controversial Three Gorges project had eventually gone to an NPC plenary session for approval, while the recently passed car and boat tax law was only approved after three readings at the NPC Standing Committee and consideration of 100,000 suggestions from the public.
"These decisions were made with very careful deliberation," Li said. "From a certain point of view one can't say that this democracy is worse than the physical confrontations between the Kuomintang and Democratic Progressive Party in the Taiwanese parliament."
Li said while there were many unsatisfactory areas in the mainland's political reform, "the good news is we are also making progress".
"For example, in the past, I probably wouldn't have accepted your interview request," he said.
Five other provincial political and legislative affairs committee chiefs did not.