SHENZHEN, China, June 30 (UPI) -- Local political leaders in the Chinese city of Shenzhen say they are working to loosen Communist Party authoritarianism.
The city is experimenting with a form of political liberalization that is at the leading edge of quiet efforts in China to rethink its Leninist system of government, The Washington Post reported Monday.
In Shenzhen, it said, the city's Communist Party secretary, Liu Yupu, assigned party members to produce a "breakthrough" reform plan that would turn Shenzhen into "a model city for socialism with Chinese characteristics," a plan that was approved June 6.
Shenzhen political scientist Huang Weiping told the Post the occasion was politically important because for the first time, various ideas for democratization had been gathered into a single document and approved by a Communist Party body.
Shenzhen, a bustling city of 10 million across from Hong Kong, has long been designated as a "special economic zone" and as such pioneered a new form of Chinese capitalism. Now, some officials and political scientists are suggesting the city be made into a "special political zone" that would be free of many of the ideological constraints imposed by traditional Chinese communism, the newspaper said.
