Change you can believe in?

Mr Wen’s remarks on political reform were striking. China,he said,had to “resolve the issue of the excessive concentration of unrestrained power” and “create conditions for the people to criticise and supervise the government.” It was necessary,he said,to build a society with “fairness and justness”. Chinese leaders have spoken

before about the importance of political reform (while ushering in very little),but Mr Wen’s emphasis was unusual.

This has caused a flurry of excitement in some state-controlled newspapers. Southern Daily,in Guangdong Province where Shenzhen is located,published a commentary saying a new wave of “leftist” thinking was blocking reforms in some places. It said it was time for a “breakthrough”,and called for “a new generation of reformers to stand up”. Yangzi Daily added that social stability in China would be unsustainable without political change. Global Times quoted a Communist Party academic as saying that the “slow pace” of political reform in China was the “root cause of growing social conflict”.

Heady stuff,but Mr Wen is no Deng. Most Beijing newspapers have reported Mr Wen’s remarks without comment. One enthusiastic group of 15 or so intellectuals gathered outside Beijing to discuss their import. The arrival of two suspected security agents and an unexpected power cut at the venue hastened proceedings to a close.

An organiser,Cui Weiping,says participants supported Mr Wen’s views,but some doubted that much would happen. One of Beijing’s most outspoken Wen-sceptics,Yu Jie,says the leaders will try to avoid any disruptive change in the two years remaining before Mr Wen and President Hu Jintao are likely to step down from the ruling Politburo. A timid attempt at reform unveiled on August 23 involves cutting 13 non-violent crimes from the list of 68 offences punishable by death. Of the hundreds executed each year,it is thought few are convicted of these crimes.

Mr Yu has put Mr Wen to an unusual test by writing a book that accuses the prime minister of being far less reformist than he makes himself out to be. China’s Best Actor,Wen Jiabao,was published in Hong Kong on August 16 but is banned in mainland China. Few books that are so explicitly critical of serving leaders (Mr Yu produced another last year that attacks President Hu) have ever been published by a Chinese citizen living in China. In this case,Mr Yu has taken on “Grandpa Wen” who is regarded by many ordinary Chinese as the party’s more human face.

Security agents visited Mr Yu in July and warned that he could be jailed if the book appeared. Their failure to arrest him so far could be a sign of progress. Or,he says,it could be a careful calculation that locking him up would do nothing for Mr Wen’s image.

© The Economist Newspaper Limited 2010