China's politics

China's politics

 

Sep 29th 2005
From Economist.com

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has governed China since 1949. Deng Xiaoping, who led the party—and therefore China—from 1978 to 1997, began a policy of " socialism with Chinese characteristics", encouraging more economic openness and foreign trade. But the CCP retains an iron grip on politics: other parties are outlawed and criticisms are quickly suppressed.

When Deng died in February 1997, Jiang Zemin and Zhu Rongji came to power as president and prime minister respectively. They oversaw China's reunification with Hong Kong in July 1997 and its joining of the World Trade Organisation in 2001. But repression of dissent continued, especially of the Falun Gong movement. Zhao Ziyang, an economic reformer who had protested against the use of force on Tiananmen Square demonstrators in 1989, remained under house arrest until his death in January 2005.

At the 16th Party Congress in November 2002 Hu Jintao was named leader of the CCP and Wen Jiabao prime minister. Mr Hu, originally thought to be a potential reformer, has proved more authoritarian, slowing down economic reforms and cracking down on the press. Meanwhile, ordinary Chinese have increasingly taken to public protests, which the government quickly suppresses. [END]