More of the same?
Critics doubt, however, whether his words will mean much in practice, not least because Prime Minister Wen Jiabao has made similar comments on many occasions, to little effect.
“I have no confidence in his anticorruption comments because he said nothing about institutional reform, nor about opening up the media and allowing freedom of speech” that might help unveil corruption, says Mr. Wen, the commentator based in Hong Kong.
“The elites know that anticorruption drives cannot be enforced unless there is political reform, and since they do not expect that, they know that anticorruption is just a slogan,” adds Yao Bo, writer of one of China’s most popular political blogs.
Though Hu called on the party to “make both active and prudent efforts to carry out reform of the political structure,” the language he used was similar to earlier exhortations that have come to naught, says Qian Gang, director of the China Media Project at Hong Kong University, who closely analyzes the texts of official speeches.
“People who have been expecting political reform in China will be disappointed by this speech,” says Mr. Qian. “There was nothing new, and there seem to be a lot of obstacles to reform” thrown up by powerful conservative factions within the Communist Party.
