Communist Party elders hit out at 'scandal of false democracy' in China

A GROUP of eminent Chinese Communist Party elders have issued a bold call to end the country's wide-ranging restrictions on free speech, just days after the government reacted angrily to the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to imprisoned dissident Liu Xiaobo.

In an open letter posted online, the retired officials state that although China's 1982 constitution guarantees freedom of speech, the right is constrained by a host of laws and regulations that should be scrapped.

"This kind of false democracy of affirming in principle and denying in actuality is a scandal," states the letter, which was dated from Monday and widely distributed by e-mail.

Wang Yongcheng, a retired professor at Shanghai's Jiaotong University who signed the letter, said it was inspired by the arrest of a journalist who wrote about corruption in the resettlement of farmers for a dam project.

"We want to spur action toward governing the country according to law," Mr Wang said.

"If the constitution is violated, the government will lack legitimacy. The people must assert and exercise their legitimate rights," he said.

Coming on top of Mr Liu's Nobel Prize, the letter further spotlights China's tight restrictions on freedom of speech and other civil rights, although Mr Wang said the two events were not directly related. Work on the letter began several days before the prize was awarded, and drafters decided against including a reference to Mr Liu out of concern the government would block its circulation.

Mr Liu, a 54-year-old literary critic, is serving an 11-year prison term after being convicted of inciting subversion over his role in writing an influential 2008 manifesto for political reform.

The letter called on the National People's Congress, China's legislature, to scrap restrictions on publications and implement post-facto reviews as many other nations did long ago.

"Our current system of censoring news and publications is 315 years behind Britain and 129 years behind France," the letter states.

Censorship has become so reflexive and restrictive that even passages urging political reform were expunged from official media reports on speeches by Premier Wen Jiabao, the letter said. Mr Wen has drawn attention in recent weeks with a series of unusually direct calls for the Communist system to evolve.

The ultimate deicsion on what can be published is made by the Communist Party's shadowy Central Propaganda Department., which regularly notifies editors about what topics are taboo, with the list changing constantly.

The letter described the department as an "invisible black hand" and questioned what right it had to override both the government and the premier.

The 23 signatories to the letter include Li Rui, the former secretary to revolutionary leader Mao Zedong, and other retired high officials in state media and the propaganda apparatus who were once responsible for enforcing strict censorship.

BACKGROUND:

The letter's claim that China is "315 years behind Britain" in its treatment of censorship seems to a reference to the 1695 Treason Act which laid down rules of evidence and procedure in high treason trials. It was passed by the English Parliament but was extended to cover Scotland in 1708. Parts of it remain in force. It laid down the rules by which a person could be charged with treason or sedition.

The Chinese government claims its citizens have free speech - but in practical terms that is limited by strictly controlled media.

A prime example occurred this week when Westerners reported TV screens going blank in hotels as both the BBC and CNN reported the Nobel Prize award.