History Made in Beijing: Dissent Voiced in Congress

The 2,970 delegates to the National People’s Congress had just endorsed a list of names for a legislative committee Monday when a stir swept through the Great Hall of the People.

The list had been approved with a sea of raised hands, and no one had voted against it. But now, a lone delegate had raised her hand to register an abstention. Heads turned, and television crews raced through the aisles to record the incident.

A few minutes later, before a vote on the membership of another committee, a second delegate stepped to a microphone and took China’s vaunted new openness and “socialist democracy” a step further.

For the next half-hour, a glimmer of something resembling parliamentary democracy illuminated China’s largely rubber-stamp legislature. And for the first time in the body’s history, dissenting views were argued in the direct glare of international media coverage.

Addressing the assembled delegates, Huang Shunxing, a former legislator in Taiwan who defected to Beijing three years ago, sharply criticized the nomination of 89-year-old Zhou Gucheng as head of the Committee on Education, Science, Culture and Public Health.

“In order to further carry out the policy of cadre rejuvenation, to let younger cadres replace the aged and to let 89-year-olds like Mr. Zhou in the older generation have more opportunities to rest,” Huang said, provoking a ripple of laughter, “I propose we select someone else.”

Huang won considerable applause. But the vote to approve the list headed by Zhou was overwhelming--nearly 2,900 to 8, with 69 abstentions.

Three other delegates, two from Zhejiang province and one from Heilongjiang province, also expressed criticism of the membership of various committees. Nonetheless, all the lists were approved by overwhelming margins.

Liu Yiu-chu of the Guangdong province delegation, whose abstention had created such a stir, continued to abstain on all seven committee lists presented in the course of the day. The Hong Kong lawyer told reporters afterward that she took her stand because delegates were not told how the names were chosen.

The official New China News Agency, with what appeared to be a touch of pride, reported that “for the first time in the history of the National People’s Congress, not a single one of the NPC’s seven committees was elected unanimously.”

Microphones Used

Dissenting views expressed by National People’s Congress delegates, especially at small group discussion sessions, have been reported in previous years in the state-controlled Chinese press. But according to veteran correspondents here, Monday marked the first time that microphones were set up for delegates to air their views at sessions attended by foreign journalists.

The official encouragement of a small amount of free discussion and dissent at the National People’s Congress--in contrast to the Communist tradition of unanimous public votes--is part of a broad effort aimed at institutionalizing wider consultation and dialogue on decisions made by the party leadership.

The method of selecting delegates also reflects this effort. Delegates to the National People’s Congress are elected by provincial people’s congresses, which in turn are elected by local people’s congresses.

The entire process is firmly controlled by various levels of the Communist Party. But this year, for the first time, delegates to the national congress were elected in multiple-candidate contests at the provincial congress level. The number of nominees was generally 20% to 50% greater than the number of places available, according to Zeng Tao, spokesman for the National People’s Congress.

New Chairman to Be Chosen

But ordinary delegates still do little more than endorse decisions made by higher-ranking leaders. At this session, for instance, they are expected to elect Vice Premier Wan Li, 72, a reformist, as the new chairman. No one doubts that the great majority will do as they are told.

Some Chinese, however, saw a significant step toward a freer society in Monday’s opportunity for delegates to make dissenting speeches in the presence of international and domestic media.

“It is progress toward democracy,” Gu Gengyu, 84, a former capitalist who is a National People’s Congress delegate, said in an interview after Monday’s session. “One can’t say it constitutes achievement of democracy.”