Retired officials try to counter beliefs of 'rightist liberal elites'
Despite attempts by the authorities to play down disagreements, the intense debate over China's reform process has escalated, with leftists opposed to the mainland's transition towards a market economy airing their views online.
A panel of retired officials and researchers from universities and government-backed think-tanks gathered on Sunday in Beijing to fight calls for faster economic reforms made by what they called 'rightist liberal elites', according to a statement posted on a mainland website critical of reform.
The meeting, organised by the leftist website maoflag.net, followed the leaking of a transcript of a secret gathering last month convened by the China Society of Economic Reform (CSER), where some participants urged faster economic and political reforms. Transcripts of both meetings have been posted on the same website, known as the Hua Yue Forum (huayue.org).
While participants at the pro-reform meeting were mostly leading government economists or academics, Sunday's meeting of more than two dozen leftists was mainly attended by retired officials or party theoreticians.
Li Chengrui, a director of the National Bureau of Statistics in the early 1980s, ridiculed claims by CSER president Gao Shangquan that reforms must be pushed forward unwaveringly.