A fragile Beijing Spring

The three men8217;s sentences came shortly after President Jiang Zemin bluntly declared: 8220;The Western mode of political system must never be copied.8221; Having seen what happened to the Soviet Union when it started to reform, the Chinese want none of it.

Optimists may hope that this week8217;s clampdown is primarilylinked to next year8217;s key anniversaries: the 10th since the Tianamen Square demonstrations and the 50th since the founding of the People8217;s Republic. The Chinese government wants to give the sternest possible warning that it will not tolerate any critical disruptions in 1999.

But if this implies that in a year8217;s time it will relax again, this is surely wrong. The better, though gloomier, analysis is that there should be no illusions about the men who run China. They are not able to accept criticism from within their system. They will not allow open discussion of the country8217;s many social and economic problems.

Above all, willing though they may be to admit capitalist features into their command economy, they will never move down the road of liberal democracy.

The Observer News Service