“For forms of government let fools contest; whatever is best administered is best!”, said Alexander Pope. China may well throw this aphorism at those who dogmatically swear that the only true democracy is the one conforming to the Anglo-Saxon variety as is practised in Britain or the US.

The Western media, for instance, have invariably dubbed as ‘rubber stamps' and stage-managed shows the annual meetings of China's apex legislative and political policy-making bodies, the National People's Congress (NPC) and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).

They are seen as “closely scripted and tightly controlled events” with the 3,000-odd delegates unanimously endorsing the official stand on the various issues.

Is it any different in the Westminster form of democracy? Don't the party congresses of Britain too run a pre-ordained course? Doesn't the much dreaded whip of political parties force every member to toe the line or else? Can anyone take on the party machine and survive? What about the ‘political theatre', as The Economist calls it, of the American party conventions?

Even judged by the criteria the West self-righteously preaches, this year's NPC shows refreshing signs of openness and sensitivity to the pressing needs of the people. In fact, the Chinese authorities have promised to pay particular attention to livelihood security, social safety nets, cost of living, housing prices, universal access to education and healthcare and combating corruption. They have found these to be the people's predominant expectations by studying the contents of microblogs which have caught on to a spectacular degree, and making use of online polls and opinion surveys in the run-up to the NPC.

FARMERS' RIGHTS

Apart from the very detailed briefing by a specially designated official spokesperson on the wide range of issues covered by the agenda, the Minister of the National Development and Reform Commission, and the Chief Economic Planner, Mr Zhang Ping, himself was fielded to give an account of the measures being taken to address the concerns weighing on the people's mind.

These included safeguarding of farmers' land rights in response to the recent agitation against land acquisition for development, and amending the criminal code by providing an explicit guarantee for “respecting and protecting human rights”.

It is impossible to improve upon the Chinese Premier, Mr Wen Jiabao's statement on farmers' entitlements to the effect that “farmers' rights to the land they contract to work on, to the land on which their houses sit and to proceeds from collective undertakings are property rights conferred by law, and these rights must not be violated by anyone”.

The ‘work report' submitted to the NPC by Mr Wen Jiabao reflected a willingness to go all out to liberalise the entry of private investments even in areas such as railways, public utilities, finance, energy, telecommunications, education, and medical care which were hitherto regarded as sensitive and reserved for the government sector. Mr Wen has even talked of easing restrictions on convertibility on capital account. The way China goes about this tricky process bears watching by India's economic players.

In other words, what the Chinese have been professing to be “a socialist system of laws with Chinese characteristics” seems to be alive and kicking.

WINNING LOCAL WARS

However, the NPC has thrown up a mystery befitting a latter-day Sherlock Holmes. While announcing a striking 11.2 per cent increase in China's defence expenditure, taking it to close to $111 billion, Mr Wen also made the intriguing as well as ominous statement: “We will enhance the armed forces' capacity to accomplish a wide range of military tasks, the most important of which is to win local wars under information-age conditions”.

Mr Wen has not explained the purport, purpose and possible places of the ‘local wars under information-age conditions' he has in mind, and the reason why he considers winning them to be ‘the most important'. What precisely are information-age conditions and how do they impact winning or losing local wars? By facilitating close and constant surveillance? Enabling collection of all the available information from all possible sources to be several steps ahead of the enemy? Achieving stealth and surprise? Planting disinformation? How does it all square with the NPC's spokesperson's playing down China's national defence policy as being defensive in nature?

Answers, anyone?

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