China: Party incompetence is fuelling protests among farmers

The charge is made by Li Jingtian, a high-ranking party official, who says more education for cadres is "necessary". But "this will not stop protests", he adds. 

Beijing (AsiaNews/SCMP) – Mass protests have increased in China because "local authorities are not capable of dealing with widespread grievances among rural residents", according to Li Jingtian, vice-director of the Department of Central Organisation of the Communist party. He made this admission during a press conference on 7 July.

Noting the outcomes of a government campaign launched to better the quality of Communist party cadres, Li emphasised "the Party's preoccupation" about growing protests among rural residents. In 2004, China saw more than 74,000 grass-roots protests which drew a total of 367 million people. President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao described problems linked to better administration of rural areas and to relations with farmers as "the most important task of the government in its modernisation drive". "Some of our rural cadres are very probably incapable of resolving problems which give rise to incidents," said Li.

In 2005, the "Advanced Education Campaign" began, targeting cadres (3.4 million people) and members (69 million) of the Communist Party. The campaign is divided into three successive six-month phases. The first phase focused on members of regional and central structures, the second on functionaries at township level and the third, set for 2006, targets agricultural areas. The Party has high expectations of this campaign but, according to Li, "frequent protests by farmers are an obstacle in rural areas".

"This campaign must focus on self-education of party members rather than identifying and punishing corrupt or incompetent officials: it should not have the aim of undertaking purges or rectifications," said Li. "A good campaign outcome would lead to better tackling of rural problems and to less mass protests".

However, the director admitted that the effectiveness of the campaign had been "hampered" by a large number of local officials "who only paid attention to satisfying higher-level authorities rather than addressing problems". He added: "One single, centralised education campaign cannot shoot down all problems or be a permanent fix."

This month, the campaign is entering what Li described as a "more complicated" phase, involving 52 per cent of party members, notably including workers, teachers, and others in grass-roots social service sectors. According to Li, when the campaign moves on next year to the nation's vast poverty-stricken rural areas – significant sources of riots and clashes between farmers and local authorities – there will be "a difficult task ahead".

• china
• grass-roots
• protests
• chinese
• communist
• party
• cadres
• corruption