Asia Times Online, 10 Jan 2009, Willy Lam
While expectations for policy changes are not high as Beijing marks the 30th anniversary of the reform era, a clutch of forward-looking cadres and intellectuals are taking advantage of the occasion to press for bolder measures, particularly in political liberalization.
This is despite the fact that the leadership under President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao seems totally preoccupied with economic woes such as slackening exports and fast-rising unemployment. Moreover, conservative elements within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) hierarchy have decried perceived Western support for the Dalai Lama as signs of a larger "conspiracy" against the Chinese socialist system.
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