China's challenge

We may never know for certain whether the recently published documents providing verbatim accounts of the deliberations of China's top leaders during the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989 are authentic. Foreign Affairs, the distinguished journal which published them, decided there were "convincing grounds" to assume the documents were credible, but added the caveat that absolute judgment was not possible, given the nature of the Chinese regime.

But whether authentic or not, it is striking that the documents tell us little that we do not already know, or suspect: Zhao Zhiyang, the then party chief was known to be sympathetic to the students, and was replaced; Li Peng the then premier was known to have taken a hard line and pushed for strong action against the protesters; and Deng Xiaoping was determined to preserve order, and ordered that the PLA be brought in and martial law declared in Beijing.

The documents make it amply clear that the leadership of the Communist Party had no intention of ceding the power it seized when it forced Chiang Kai-shek's nationalists to flee the mainland in 1949.

In the 11 years that have passed since the crackdown on the students, China's leaders have repeatedly stressed that for them, political reform does not imply a dilution of the Communist Party's leading role, nor are they willing to countenance a breakdown in civil society.

These documents, however, help to focus attention on a long- term issue that the Chinese leadership is likely to face as it proceeds with economic reform and modernization.

Social, political and economic change rarely occurs through smooth, orderly processes. This is especially so in today's globalized, networked, world where along with goods, services, and technology, ideas and values also flow across national boundaries.

As China's economic base changes, there will be pressure to change the political superstructure as well. The real challenge to the leadership will be to find a way to meet these demands for change.

-- The South China Morning Post, Hong Kong