China’s leaders must learn from Soviet Union’s fatal mistakes, says heavyweight communist liberal Hu Deping
- Hu Deping, son of late party General Secretary Hu Yaobang – whose 1989 death ultimately led to the Tiananmen Square crackdown - says China must stick to reform
- Speech to seminar on reform and opening up warns China to avoid Soviet errors such as centralising power and rigid planned economy
An influential member of the liberal camp of the Chinese Communist Party warned the leadership in a seminar on Wednesday to learn from the mistakes of the former Soviet Union amid the current confrontation between China and the US.
“One of the fatal errors [made by the Soviets] is that they followed a political system with highly centralised power. Not every socialist country does that,” said Hu Deping, son of the late reformist General Secretary Hu Yaobang, whose death ultimately led to the infamous Tiananmen Square crackdown.
“Another [mistake] was their rigid economic system. By the same token, not all socialist countries must practise a planned economy,” he said.
Hu’s speech came as party elites are expected to convene a high level meeting to discuss the direction of policy ahead of the annual parliamentary sessions in March.
It was also delivered against a backdrop of sluggish economic growth and at a time when Beijing finds itself at loggerheads with Washington on a wide range of issues ranging from trade and technology to geopolitics.