China conference on democratization canceled

0 Comments | Asian Political News, May 31, 2005

BEIJING, May 24 Kyodo

A conference in Beijing on democratization and the role of the Constitution in China set for last week was canceled without reason, an American co-sponsor said Tuesday.

The China University of Political Science and Law spiked the Conference on Constitutionalism and Political Democratization in China, which was scheduled to begin last Thursday and end Sunday, said Thomas De Luca, a political science professor at Fordham University in New York.

Fordham was helping organize the conference along with the Fulbright Program and the U.S. China Business Council.

''The China University of Political Science and Law canceled the conference without giving Fordham University an official explanation,'' De Luca said.

A representative of the Chinese university said he did not know of a conference planned for this month but said the school held a conference last year for the 50th anniversary of China's Constitution.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan said last week he had no information about the cancellation.

The conference was to cover human rights, growing people's awareness of what the Constitution is supposed to guarantee and chances for democracy in the Communist Party-ruled nation, according to the agenda.

One session was titled ''Democracy, Rights, and Constitutionalism: Compatibilities and Tensions.'' The subtitle of another session was ''Growing socio-economic inequality and China's democratic prospects.''

''In the past several years, interest in the prospects for constitutionalism and democracy has grown among scholars, legal practitioners, and political leaders,'' the conference agenda states.

''During this period there has also been an exponential growth in awareness of citizens that they may have constitutional rights that can be enforced in a court of law, and that they should be entitled to choose their leaders through elections.''

Democratic reforms are a sensitive topic with Chinese leaders, especially ahead of the anniversary of the June 4, 1989 crackdown, in which troops suppressed pro-democracy demonstrators on Tiananmen Square.