Party paper invokes Xi's father while lauding reform

Party-run newspapers ratcheted up the debate over the country's future yesterday, with one arguing China was not capitalist and another invoking the name of President Xi Jinping's father to promote reform.

The swelling factional conflict came as leaders gathered for their annual summer summit at Beidaihe, east of Beijing, where they were to discuss domestic issues ahead of formal party meetings in the autumn.

Over the past month, state media have carried a series of tit-for-tat commentaries by reformists who argue that free market capitalism and rule of law was key to China's continued success, and conservatives who attribute the nation's achievements to socialism and one-party rule.

The salvos continued yesterday, with the People's Daily carrying an article by Guangdong party school professor Zheng Zhiguo, who said China was not a capitalist country, despite bearing many similarities with one.

"There is an essential distinction between the socialist and capitalist systems, although they share some similarities," he said. "China's world-famous achievements in economic and social development since … the reform and opening-up era suggested the current system of socialism with Chinese characteristics fits the country's basic national condition."

The socialist system "sails with the tide and provides a basic guarantee of China's development and advancement in modern times", Zheng said.

The commentary hit out at those who advocated a Western-style political system, saying that they "often wrongly attributed China's recent success to the introduction of [certain aspects of] capitalism and China's existing problems to its adherence to socialism".