Chinese Communists accused of bowing to capitalism

BEIJING, July 19 (Reuters) A group of retired Chinese officials, military officers and academics has accused the Communist Party of bowing to capitalism as contending political forces seek to influence a key meeting later this year.

The leftists' criticism follows a string of essays in the liberal magazine China Across the Ages (Yanhuang Chunqiu) urging democratic reform ahead of the 17th party congress this autumn.

In an open letter posted on www.maoflag.net, the 17 leftists took party leaders to task over a slavery scandal involving child labour at scorching brickworks which shocked the nation.

The letter urged party chief Hu Jintao to use the congress ''to rectify a wrong rule allowing capitalists who refuse to abandon exploitation to join the party'', underlining a rift within party ranks.

Since the late 1970s, Communist leaders have discarded Mao Zedong's vision of a socialist command economy and embraced private investment and foreign capitalists. But they still insist that only iron one-party rule can keep the country together as its economy takes off.

Xu Fei, 78, a retired assistant professor of philosophy at Communication University of China and one of the signatories, confirmed the authenticity of the letter which was addressed to Hu, seven other members of the all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee and the elite 350-odd-member Central Committee.

''This view is correct but I don't agree if you say 'extreme leftists','' Xu told Reuters when asked if the group were leftists, or conservatives.

Underscoring the political sensitivity of the issue, Hong Kong's China-monitoring Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy said in a faxed statement that Maoflag.net had been shut down since Wednesday because of ''official pressure''.

Its front page was blank today save for a line reading ''the Web site is under maintenance'' and a cell phone number.

A man answering the phone told Reuters that the closure was due to technical reasons.

''LOST DIRECTION'' Signatories to the letter included retired cabinet ministers and military officers, a former ambassador to the Soviet Union and conservative Marxist academics. The oldest was Ma Bin, 94, a former adviser to a cabinet think-tank.

The letter accused the party of veering towards capitalism, saying it had ''lost its correct direction'', an apparent bid to pressure the leadership and stymie reforms at the congress.

''Imperialists, capitalists and their proxies have deeply penetrated the country politically, ideologically, economically, financially, culturally, educationally, militarily, diplomatically, ethnically and religiously,'' the letter read, underscoring raw fears of threats to one-party rule.

If China pursued reforms transforming it from socialist to capitalist, the letter warned, ''the death of the party and the death of the state was around the corner''.

They also called for direct election to the top echelon of the party but made no mention of elections for the president, the premier, provincial governors or members of parliament.

A debate between conservatives and liberals has erupted in the media.

In February, Xie Tao, 85, a veteran Communist Party member, made an impassioned call for democracy in China Across the Ages, a monthly backed by reformist party elders.

Xie described 20th century history as a contest between capitalism, communism and Swedish-style democratic socialism, with its stress on equality and political rights.

He said the democratic socialist model had won, outlasting communism and transforming capitalism. He urged China to renew itself through democratic reform.

Lu De, the eldest son of late vice premier Lu Dingyi, published an essay in the monthly urging the leadership to ''let children attend school and let common people speak up''.

This month, the magazine published a rare picture of Zhao Ziyang, who was toppled as party chief for opposing the 1989 Tiananmen massacre.

REUTERS ARB MIR KP1718