An influential scholar from the Communist Party of China, or the CPC, has said China's political reform should focus on the development of grassroots democracy. Democracy should first be tried at the grassroots level and then pushed upward.
Yu Keping is deputy director of the Compilation and Translation Bureau of the CPC Central Committee. He told China Daily that the essence of democratic politics is participation of the citizenry.
He said democracy is a series of institutions and procedures that seek to guarantee freedom, equality and other rights of citizens.
According to Yu, a key point of political reform was increasing people's political interests as much as possible without reducing the interests people already have.
He continued by saying political reform in China will focus on adjusting the allocation of benefits and reducing the benefits gap among different social groups. Based on the principles of justice and equality, reform should help the poor, disabled, or marginalized groups.
"All political reforms should be oriented toward increasing, instead of decreasing, the existing political interests of the citizenry," Yu said.
Yu said democratic policies would be developed through intra-Party democracy, or democracy inside the Party. Democratization, meanwhile, will develop from the grassroots.
The Communist Party of China remains at the center of political power in contemporary China. With more than 70 million party members, the CPC comprises the vast majority of social and political elites in China, Yu said.
"As such, if it was not for intra-Party democracy, democracy in China would be nothing more than an empty slogan," he said.
Yu said Chinese people had increasing freedom in political elections.
"China has announced it will establish its socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics by 2010, a vital component of China's political machine," Yu said.
He said to construct a socialist democratic system, the first step was to institute rule of law. China had made rapid progress in this respect, particularly since opening up in 1978.
"Universal values serve to bolster China's political reforms," he said, adding that these values included freedom, justice, democracy, equality and human rights.
Many new political ideas and innovations popular in China originated in the experiences of foreign political systems. However, these ideas have been adapted to fit political conditions in China, Yu said.
（英语点津 Celene 编辑）
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Jonathan Stewart is a media and journalism expert from the United States with four years of experience as a writer and instructor. He accepted a foreign expert position with chinadaily.com.cn in June 2007 following the completion of his Master of Arts degree in International Relations and Comparative Politics.
