Beijing can learn from 'little brother' Hanoi's reform steps

In the final article marking 30 years since the Sino-Vietnamese war, Ivan Zhai looks at the lessons Hanoi can teach Beijing about the way forward with political reform.

In the small family of Asia's socialist states, Vietnam has long played little brother, both politically and economically, to China. But some mainland liberal scholars and government think-tanks now consider it time for Beijing to follow Hanoi's lead and push ahead with political change.

The two nations have always had considerable cultural and political connections. Vietnam was dominated by China for the first millennium AD and remained a tributary state for centuries after. The neighbours normalised ties in 1991, forging links and working to solve border disputes. Since then, while Beijing pushed ahead with market reforms and Vietnam was forced to play catch-up, it has been the other way around for the two countries' flirtations with political reforms.

The liberal Zhou Ruijin, a former deputy editor-in-chief at the People's Daily who first wrote about the "Hanoi experience" three years ago, argues political changes in Vietnam are an example of "a student surpassing his teacher".

Mr Zhou, 69, made his name with a series of articles in the early 1990s supporting paramount leader Deng Xiaoping's economic restructuring, and he has gone on to become an outspoken proponent of reform.

He says Beijing should undertake political change, even in these uncertain times, with a hobbled economy raising the spectre of social unrest. He urged central authorities to look to Hanoi for inspiration.

These changes include strengthening the party's central committee to supervise the Politburo, the arm of the party responsible for daily operations and therefore the country; and giving representatives of the various congresses around the country greater power to demand answers from other government officials.

Vietnam, he said, had also introduced a more open process in selecting candidates for top party positions, with extensive consensus-building and party members' opinions carefully considered before central authorities made their choice.

While a far cry from western-style democracy, the system is more progressive than it was in the past when all major leadership positions were decided behind the scenes by a handful of powerful politicians.

Mr Zhou said that in this respect, Beijing had a long way to go.

He said it was unfortunate that rescuing the economy had taken up the central government's attention. Any moves towards reform would likely be delayed, he said.

"People [in the party] always worry that improper action [on political reform] might cause unforeseen trouble, so it will not be easy to push reforms ahead at this moment," Mr Zhou said.

Other analysts agreed the economic climate was forcing socialist countries to slow political reform.

Huang Yunjing, a Vietnam specialist at the Sun Yat-sen University School of Political Science and Public Administration, said domestic and international financial turmoil had already delayed or stopped further structural change efforts in Vietnam.

During the central committee's conference in July, the Vietnamese Communist Party discussed only economic issues, Dr Huang said.

Another setback for advocates of change came last year when a Vietnamese court jailed three activists from the Viet Tan (Vietnam Reform Party) on charges of terrorism. Viet Tan casts itself as seeking "democratic change through peaceful, non-violent means".

"Vietnam's political reform is based on the condition that the ruling Communist Party has a firm grip on governance and that the bottom line cannot be challenged," Dr Huang said.

Mr Zhou said that despite those developments, Vietnam's experience was still an important reference for the mainland's political future.

He insisted that mainland authorities had to make political change the core issue because all other development, including the economic, cultural and social reform, relied on it. For example, politics always intervened in the drafting of laws related to the economy, media powers and non-governmental organisations that help low-income residents.

One step would be for the party to remove institutional barriers by changing the administrative system in a way that would limit government power and make it focus on public service rather than the economy.

"Then we can expand the 'democracy within the party'," he said, suggesting that representatives at all levels of party congresses should be allowed to directly vote for a proportion of leadership candidates.

Under existing rules, candidates for party leadership are put forward by party organisation departments.

Mr Zhou said that before realising universal suffrage nationwide, direct elections should at least be expanded from village to county level.

"It is difficult to bring about a general election, we can [only] move forward with a half-step," he said.