Beijing has restricted activities and literature to mark the 20th anniversary of Deng Xiaoping's economic reforms this Friday. A conference at the Great Hall of the People to commemorate the occasion will be attended by central leaders and President Jiang Zemin will deliver a speech on Deng's reforms. There will be no other major activities to mark the date. 'Party leaders have ordered that all commemorating functions must be centrally co-ordinated. Government units, state enterprises and universities are not encouraged to organise their own activities,' an official from the Propaganda Department said. Many universities had planned to hold seminars on Friday but have been persuaded not to. Cadres and academics instead will be asked to study Mr Jiang's speech, which will set the tone for future reforms. 'The guideline for such functions is 'to remember the issue but not to arouse disputes',' the official said. 'All related speeches and literature are required to focus on positive publicity of reform success and to avoid controversy regarding different views of reform.' The Communist Party opened the Third Plenum of the 11th Party Congress on December 18, 1978, at which Deng's open door policy and economic reforms were endorsed. 'Leaders are very anxious that any massive heated debates on the pros and cons of the past 20 years might stir up grievances among laid-off workers,' an official said. 'The liberated discussion at the Third Plenum of the 11th Party Congress 20 years ago was allowed because it was the political transition point at which Deng Xiaoping was set to replace the then party chairman Hua Guofeng. But now central leadership is comparatively stable.' Mr Jiang is expected to pledge to continue Deng's reform but not promise further drastic reform measures. A party source said Mr Jiang told senior party members in a recent internal meeting that 'no matter it is leftist, middle or rightist views, he would give neither support nor protection'. The key was control of the 'overall situation'. He said Mr Jiang would call for further efforts to minimise the gap between rich and poor and to stem rampant official corruption after years of reforms. The focus of future reform would be the state industrial sector, especially the 50,000 small state enterprises. Meanwhile, the official People's Daily mentioned for the first time yesterday the deposed leader Zhao Ziyang's name on two occasions in a chronology of the 20 years of reform.
