Xi Jinping's drive for reform depends on strong party, says former senior policymaker Shi Zhihong

President Xi Jinping is committed to reforms, including further opening up the economy to the free market, but will do nothing to subvert the power of the Communist Party, says a former senior policymaker.

Shi Zhihong, who until recently was deputy director of the Central Policy Research Office, said any moves to curb the party's authority might create instability and disorder.

"It is impossible to push hard for deepening reforms and to realise the modernisation of governance if the country is in chaos," Shi told the South China Morning Post in his first wide-ranging interview with a newspaper outside the mainland. Shi was responsible for drafting key policy documents, such as the communiqué issued at the end of the party plenum in November that mapped out reforms for the next decade.

He said there were elements in the party on the left who rejected modernisation and reformers on the right who questioned one-party rule. Both approaches could prove disastrous for the country's steady path of reform.

And as reform goes deeper it might damage the interests of some groups who question the authority of the party, he said.

The country could evolve only through "socialism with Chinese characteristics" and could not allow any "subversive errors" when it comes to the fundamental issues of governance, he added. One of the cornerstones of Xi's foreign policy was that it would not challenge the existing international order, despite its imperfections, said Shi, who is now deputy head of the legal committee for the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the country's political advisory body.