The one party line

BEIJING, Dec 2: China's top legislator and senior Communist Party leader Li Peng has ruled out multi-party democracy in the world's most ...

BEIJING, Dec 2: China8217;s top legislator and senior Communist Party leader Li Peng has ruled out multi-party democracy in the world8217;s most populous country and rejected calls for re-evaluation of Chinese army crackdown on pro-democracy activists in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

8220;China is a developing country with large population and adopting the Western system indiscriminately and completely in such countries will not work,8221; Li, currently chairman of the National People8217;s Congress NPC, said.

8220;I believe it should be up to the people of various countries to make their own decisions about the road to development and the social system that they would like to adopt in their countries, and it should not be judged by Western standards,8221; the former premier said in an interview to a German magazine Handelsbatt.

Li, currently number two in the Chinese Communist Party hierarchy, said China cannot afford to repeat the 8220;chaotic situation8221; experienced during the decade-long Cultural Revolution 1966-1976where thousands of political organisations grew overnight.

8220;The Communist Party is the leading force of China8217;s revolution,8221; the senior leader said while defending the one-party system, saying that its 1.2 billion people enjoyed 8220;extensive amount of democracy8221; under the present system.

8220;In China, economic development has to be continued on political stability and on the correct handling of the relationship between reforms, development and stability,8221; Li said.

Referring to the crackdown by the Chinese army on pro-democracy activists on June 4, 1989, Li, who was prime minister then, justified the action and ruled out any re-evaluation of the issue.

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He said the party was unanimous on the decision of the crackdown, adding, 8220;This was the consensus of the party central committee with Comrade Jiang Zemin Chinese president and party general secretary at the core.8221; Li also said Mao Zedong had committed 8220;serious mistakes8221; during his Cultural Revolution.

However, considering Mao8217;s life as a whole,his contributions to China8217;s revolution far exceeded his errors, he added. He brushed off criticism that modern China has deviated from Mao8217;s thoughts and principles by pursuing capitalism.

8220;His Mao8217;s thought is a valuable ideological asset of the Communist Party of China and the country is still guided by it,8221; Li asserted.