China holds secret experiment on democracy in remote town

By Renee Schoof

BUYUN, China (AP): In cypress-dotted hills, near a crossing of a few red dirt roads, a farmer smoothes timbers for his house and tells how he and other villagers did something never tried in Communist China: Elect their own local government leader.

In a bold, secret experiment by reform-minded local officials, about 6,000 voters in the 10 villages that make up Buyun enthusiastically cast ballots Dec. 31 for their own magistrate.

What happened in Buyun shows the promises and pitfalls Communist Party leaders face as they try to move China forward. They want to build up the economy and are considering altering its autocratic political structure, but worry about losing control.

Already one liberal commentator has likened the political experiment in China's southwestern Sichuan province to another village's decision 20 years ago to end communal farming and let families farm. That move caught on nationwide, pushing the government to change policy and to launch China's economic reform era.

So far, senior Chinese leaders have not commented publicly on the election. Officials in the county outside the city of Suining who dared back the poll are keeping quiet, fearful of the repercussions.

But China is ripe for change. Urban workers are being laid off by the millions as state industries try to cope with industrial reforms. Farmers are upset over sagging incomes, taxes and official corruption. Reports of protests are frequent.

Anger over excessive local taxes simmers in Buyun, where emerald fields of vegetables and ankle-high winter wheat thrive in the fog-covered hills, 1,500 kilometers (950 miles) southwest of Beijing.

"The taxes farmers have to hand over to the government are really high," said Cai, a farmer who identified himself only by his family name. The taxes on each pig, and on other crops, make it almost impossible to make a living, he added.

Farmers carry goods to market in baskets strapped to their backs. Along the roads, sweet potato vines are strung up to dry for pig feed. In Buyun, a town with virtually no cars, boards set across sawhorses placed in the road are piled with peanuts, bags of sugar and firecrackers for sale. Customers are few.

Nearly every family has someone working far from home. Cai works most of the year as a security guard in industrialized Guangdong province, near Hong Kong.

"Open democracy is better, of course," he said. "We need a leader with the spirit to really get things done."

China's 870 million rural residents have been voting for the leaders of their own villages for a decade. But the election in Buyun was a significant departure.

Buyun is a collection of villages -- the lowest extension of the formal government structure. Government leaders are supposed to be chosen indirectly, by legislators elected by villagers.

The Shizhong district, or county-level, government decided last year to experiment with elections, first trying more open public primaries in two townships. Then, party officials met and agreed to try a direct election.

Fearing interference, party leaders ordered that their plans not be reported to anyone outside the county. They chose Buyun because it was isolated -- four hours on winding roads from the provincial capital -- and because its people wanted elections, said a Beijing academic who observed the election and asked not to be identified.

Party officials kept control over the process. Only local and county officials voted in the primary from a slate of 15 popularly nominated candidates. The party candidate won the general election, barely, in a process the Beijing academic said was fair.

One national newspaper has already criticized the election for breaking China's election law. The Beijing academic and other reform-minded officials, however, say this is the way reforms are made in China. They point to Chinese President Jiang Zemin's hinting of electoral experiments at a speech to party leaders in 1997.

Buyun's election featured secret ballots and boisterous campaigning. Interest was so high even in the primary that police set up a cordon to keep order. Villagers waited in the rain to vote on election day.

In two weeks of campaigns, the candidates -- teacher Zhou Xingyi, village chief Cai Ronghui and Buyun vice party secretary Tan Xiaoqu -- visited all 10 villages. Flatbed trucks with aides banging drums carried the candidates to markets.

"Some of what they said was exaggeration," says a retired farmer, whose family name, like that of more than half the population of 16,000 here, is also Cai.

The farmers' questions about high taxes and slow development were heated, direct and sometimes impolite, said the academic.

Teacher Zhou stumbled when grilled on farming. Village chief Cai used an old communist slogan that people should be self- reliant. Party official Tan told villagers he already had a record of helping Buyun and the connections to do more.

Tan, the Communist Party official, won with 3,130 votes, a shade above the 50 percent needed. The county congress affirmed his victory and swore him in the next week.

Tan had a good record, would not cheat people and had "the spirit to get things done," the retired Cai said as he played mahjongg outdoors.

"What the people wanted was to select their own officials," he said. "If it turns out they can't manage things, only the masses can decide."