Leftist cadres and academics demand Wen Jiabao step down

Wen Jiabao has overseen a decade of further economic reform as premier. He has also spoken of the need for political reforms.
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About 1,600 conservative cadres of the Communist Party of China and scholars have launched a campaign calling on the Chinese premier, Wen Jiabao, to stand down, according to the national Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun.

For senior party cadres and intellectuals who support the leftist policies of the Mao Zedong era, the economic reforms undertaken under Wen — a continuation of the reforms first introduced by Deng Xiaoping after Mao's death — have shaken the foundation of China's socialist economy. To prevent China from becoming a nation with a multi-party system, they also strongly object to the political reforms Wen is believed to support. A letter urging Wen to step down was sent to the party's central committee.

Wen, who is approaching the end of his ten years in office, will in any case give way to his successor following the party's 18th National Congress in the fall. He is expected to be succeeded by Vice Premier Li Keqiang in a new administration almost certain to continue the reforms launched under Deng and continued under Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao, the current president.

In the letter, the group criticized Wen's policy of encouraging private enterprise at the expense of state-run companies. The only contribution Wen has made to China is to create a greater disparity between rich and poor, they said. The letter accused Wen of trying to establish a multi-party capitalist system, which runs dircetly counter to the core values of the People's Republic of China.

The premier's instruction to shut down websites promoting Marxism and Maoism was criticized as an attack on their freedom of speech.

A report from Japan's Kyodo news agency stated that Li Chengrui, former director of the National Statistics Bureau, and Ma Bin, former adviser to the Development Research Center of the State Council are among the signatories.