By DPA
Beijing : China’s Communist Party marked another short step away from its roots in Marxism and Mao Zedong thought Sunday by protecting religion and business in its constitution.
Some 2,200 top party members approved the inclusion in the constitution of party and state leader Hu Jintao’s “scientific outlook on development” as well as the first mention of religion and a promise to promote private industry.
The delegates to the party’s five-yearly congress agreed to “unswervingly encourage, support and guide the development of the non-public sector” and allow market forces to play a “fundamental role in the allocation of resources”, state media said.
The change follows a constitutional amendment in 2002, when former party leader Jiang Zemin persuaded the majority of members to accept his call to allow business people and other “new forces” to join the party.
The controversial move changed the basic principles of the party, which had always claimed to represent workers and farmers since it was founded in 1921.
Jiang said workers and farmers would remain the backbone of the party but should be supplemented by entrepreneurs and professionals once dismissed as the “class enemies” of communists.
“Since the 1990s, the Chinese Communist Party has changed its ideas, systems and approach from that of a revolutionary party to that of a governing party,” said Xu Xianglin, an expert on governance at Beijing University.
“It pays more attention to the interaction between society and government, and government accountability,” Xu said.
“Ideology is still important but it is not too forceful,” he said.
The party now promotes Hu’s “scientific outlook”, his “people-oriented” approach and his call for a “harmonious society”.
“These show that the Chinese Communist Party’s ideology and political line have been adjusted,” Xu said.
The party said this week that nearly three of its 73 million members were classified as “private sector” members.
State media said the party had also inserted its “guiding principles and policies in religious work” into the constitution with the aim of meeting “demands posed by the new situation and new tasks.”
China’s national constitution gives broad protection to religious practice under state control, and the government has actively promoted Buddhist and other state-run religious bodies since it banned the Falun Gong spiritual movement in 1999.
The party made two major amendments to its constitution earlier in the 1990s, firstly to enshrine Deng Xiaoping’s “building socialism with Chinese characteristics” and later to elevate Deng Xiaoping theory to its “guiding ideology” alongside Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong thought.
Its most important constitutional amendment arguably came in 1982. Changes were made to reflect Deng’s efforts to correct the “leftist mistakes” of the 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution, eradicate the Mao personality cult and allow “democratic discussion” of major issues by party leaders.
In the latest change, Hu’s “scientific development” requires China to move towards more sustainable growth and create a “harmonious society” by reducing the economic inequalities that have resulted from 25 years of its “development first” strategy.
Hu has also continued to prioritise the fight against corruption since Jiang made it a focus of his keynote speech at the last congress in 2002.
State media trumpeted the fact that Hu used the word democracy more than 60 times in his speech to the congress.
The party lauded the fact that about 8 per cent of candidates failed to win a seat on the 370-strong Central Committee on Sunday, claiming it as a reflection of democratic development.
In an editorial for the influential Caijing magazine last week, Hu Shuli quoted Hu Jintao as saying there could be “no modernization without democratization.”
Hu Shuli outlined “established roadblocks” to the process of gradually developing village elections, greater openness in governance, and democracy within the party.
She said political reform was held back partly “because some groups with vested interests in the status quo have purposely hindered reform” and by an “excessively cautious stance.”
Diehard Maoists and party members with corrupt business links are those most often blamed for opposing reform.
Yet despite vows to develop “socialist democracy” and “political restructuring,” there are no signs of any moves towards open national elections or multi-party democracy, which the party often dubs “Western-style democracy.”
The party instead urges Chinese people to wait several decades for multi-party democracy and unite behind its economic modernization drive under “socialism with Chinese characteristics.”