Beijing, China (FT) -- A group of veteran reformers in China's Communist party has demanded that the country dismantle its elaborate censorship apparatus, an appeal for accelerated political reform which Beijing quickly moved to silence.
In an open letter to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, 23 former senior party cadres and one-time editors at party media called on the legislative body to pass laws entrenching the freedoms of speech and publishing that are guaranteed in the constitution but often denied in practice.
"The 'socialist democracy' with Chinese characteristics propagated by [our] country has become just too embarrassing," said the letter. It called for publishers and editors to be put in full control of the content of books and newspapers and for the ending of pre-publication screening by outside censors. It also calls for an end to Internet censorship.
The document was published on the blogging platform of sina.com, China's largest news portal, on Tuesday morning, but was taken down a few hours later.
The letter follows the award on Friday of this year's Nobel peace prize to Liu Xiaobo, a Chinese dissident serving an 11-year jail sentence on charges of subversion. In its citation, the Nobel committee focused on the freedoms guaranteed in China's constitution but not always respected.
Coming days before a key policy meeting of the Central Committee of the ruling Communist party, the letter also follows a series of intriguing statements in recent months by Wen Jiabao, premier, calling for greater political reform in China. These include an interview in which he told CNN that demands for "democracy and freedom are irresistible".
Although Chinese leaders often pay lip service to support for democracy, especially when talking to foreign audiences, some observers had speculated that Mr Wen was making a major push for political reform in his last two years in office. However, some analysts believe that the Nobel prize and the embarrassment it has created for Beijing might in the short-term strengthen conservative voices opposed to faster reform.
CNN
