Meanwhile pressures are building from below for reforming various laws. Last month, about 30 members of the NPC introduced amendments to the criminal procedure code demanding greater legal protection of the basic rights of those charged with crimes and limiting the power of the state to extract confessions.

Soft power

Communist China’s new-found obsession with ‘soft power’ as an instrument of foreign policy continues. The latest exhortation comes from Liu Yunshan, politburo member and propaganda czar, who said, “The first two decades of this century are a strategic period for China’s cultural development, and we should seize this opportunity to greatly improve the country’s cultural soft power”.

Meanwhile the Chinese government is raising the outlay on diplomatic spending abroad by nearly 40 per cent to 23 billion Yuan or nearly Rs 13,000 crore. Much of this spending abroad will go to such activities as foreign aid, peace-keeping operations and increased support to international organisations.

Happy boy

Soft power, of course, is a double-edged sword. While leveraging it abroad, China is aware of the need to manage it at home. As millions of Chinese youth gear up for the reality show, Happy Boy inspired by American Idol, the CCP is laying down the law.

“No weirdness, no vulgarity, no low taste,” the state administration for Radio, Film and Television told Hunan Satellite company, the show’s promoter. The eleven restrictions laid down by the Chinese Censor Board include one that the contestants must only sing “healthy and ethically inspiring” songs.

... contd.