Xi's 'southern tour' speech shows why women's rights must advance
Chang Ping says the reportedly leaked 'southern tour' speech by Xi Jinping not only dims hopes for reform but also underlines how the entrenched ideas of patriarchy have helped reinforce autocratic rule
A speech Xi Jinping made during his "southern tour" last month is being circulated within party ranks, veteran journalist Gao Yu said in an article published on the website of the German broadcaster Deutsche Welle. The full text of the speech has been posted online. If that is indeed the speech Xi made, then it is clear China has a new leader who is more conservative and more intractable than his predecessors.
Xi's words dashed hopes for change. While Deng Xiaoping's "southern tour speeches" 20 years ago famously called for bolder, faster reforms, Xi's version on his visit - which had aroused such great interest in its significance - amounted to a rejection of reform. He echoed Hu Jintao's shocking conclusion in his final work report at the 18th party congress that while China "will not continue on the old path that is closed and rigid, it also won't go the heretical way of changing our banner".
Xi rejected the warning by Deng and Wen Jiabao that political reform lagged behind economic reform, insisting that reforms have been "comprehensive", saying "I don't agree with the view that some aspects of our reform are lagging".
The most interesting was his regret and pain at the disintegration of the Soviet Union. "To dismiss the history of the Soviet Union and the Soviet Communist Party, to dismiss Lenin and Stalin, and to dismiss everything else is to engage in historic nihilism, and it confuses our thoughts and undermines the party's organisations on all levels. Why must we stand firm on the party's leadership over the military? Because that's the lesson from the collapse of the Soviet Union," Xi said. This would explain why the Chinese Communist Party has not removed the remnants of Maoist thought in its constitution, as people wish. It would also explain the party's continuing faith to "maintain stability" at all costs.
These views are also the substance of an article in the latest issue of the party's leading policy magazine, .
One other comment in Xi's speech deserves attention - "no one was man enough". Still on the Soviet Union, Xi said: "Finally, Gorbachev announced the disbandment of the Soviet Communist Party in a blithe statement. A big party was gone just like that. Proportionally, the Soviet Communist Party had more members than we do, but nobody was man enough to stand up and resist."
