[War] China: "Landmark Legislation"

[Chazenesq2b at aol.com]

"Landmark Legislation"

President Xia Hong
People's Republic of China
August 2nd, 2006
========================================

It was the Free Speech Zone initiative.  A rather tame name for a law, which 
if passed, may put China on an irrecoverable road toward democracy of some 
kind.

It was also one of Xia's major initiatives.  She knew well the desire to 
express opinion of all kind, and the under-riding strength of sentiment that, like 
water boiling in a pressure cooker, needed to be released every now and again 
to avoid, in short, another Tiannamen Square.  She didn't want such a thing 
to happen again... Chinese troops, she swore, should never be forced into a 
position of having to be used against Chinese citizens.  All civilized nations 
had specially trained police forces for that... never again.

Granted, this wasn't really designed to 'stop' another protest of that scale, 
but she hoped if the people realized their concerns 'were' being taken 
seriously, that if they got the coverage and the attention of the government, it 
would not only satisfy them on the gradual move to a one-party democracy which 
was the plans of the Party, but condition the party to win in those elections.

100 different 'public' areas of the country, scattered about the provinces in 
roughly a fair distribution, would be set aside as 'Free Speech Zones'.  
There, people would be legitimately able to apply for permit to march, scream, 
carry on, whatever they so liked, about whatever they liked.  It gave the police 
the ability to make sure they don't get out of hand, the government retained 
the right to say no if it would endanger the public safety, and the public had 
the chance to vent.  The law left the number of days where marches would be 
acceptable up for debate, though it allowed for no less than 50 days annually... 
an attempt at compromise with the few 'hard-line' Chinese politicians left.  
People would have to apply through their local governments, which could than 
request federal assistance to provide security or essential services should the 
need come to it.  That in turn gave the Federal government ultimate say in 
whether the protest went on... it would require the creation of a new office to 
investigate each request, but that didn't bother her much.  If anything, it 
gave some incentive with which she could grease the political wheels of Beijing.

The law also allowed a slight increase in the ongoing experiments with local 
democracy.  It would be a national scale election in so far as local 
representatives would be elected everywhere, rather than in targeted 'test' provinces.  
In addition, the people could vote to either 'approve' or 'disapprove' of 
their congressional representation.  Approvals would obviously remain within the 
party, disapprovals would be subject to evaluation by the Standing Committee, 
and potentially replaced by someone else.  It certainly wasn't full democracy, 
but it was far more ambitious a program than has been taken previously.

As a result of the scale and complexity of the experiment, the elections 
would be set for 2010, allowing adequate time for the party to solidify it's 
popularity and dramatically improve it's image, while affording the country much 
needed favorable public relations immensely.

Then, probably a more contentious issue, would have been the release of 
political prisoners.

Xia, for her part, was split over it... so one could only imagine what it was 
like for others.  Originally the idea was to release them all with a clean 
slate... as a former Political Commissar in the PLA she found that abhorrant.  
Some of these people had gone well beyond expressing their opinions to actively 
trying to undermine the ideals of the People's Republic, ideals her youth was 
spent protecting!  On the other hand, some of them really hadn't done much 
wrong, certainly nothing they'd 'now' consider wrong, and she did feel a certain 
empathy, a certain need to prove they were moving on, to the West, and more 
importantly to her own people.  Besides, the Standing Committee and the 
Congress would never have gone for unconditional release.  And what of their records?

What she, in consultation with the Standing Committee, key members of the 
Congress, and her own advisors had come up with was something of a compromise.  A 
parole board of sorts, which would have five members.  They would classify 
each prisoner in one of three categories, 'significant risk' being reserved for 
those people who had a very real chance of harming the public safety if 
released, 'paroled' for those who did break the law significantly and thus should 
have their criminal records maintained and be subject to the police checking up 
on them, but if apologetic could be released.  Finally 'innocent' would be for 
those who's crimes were so meaningless by today's standards that they would 
be released completely and their records expunged.  The Parole Commission would 
sift through evidence, testimony, and come to a decision based on that.  The 
Standing Committee would appoint, and Congress confirm each member of the 
Parole Commission... the government still liked retaining oversight after all.

It was a big change... a drastic change even... yet China seemed to be a land 
very much capable of change these days.  Hopefully, Xia thought as she 
prepared to make her case before the Standing Committee, which she knew would 
accept, and the Congress... which might offer a heckle or two.

Maybe now, the rest of the world might realize China was serious in embracing 
modernity.
=========================================

ACTIONS

1.  Pass Free Speech Zone Initiative, which is to cover the following...
    a.  100 Free Speech Centers to be established in public areas throughout 
the country.  Once permits are approved, all Speech will be non-censored save 
to prevent incitement of riot or violence, and Xinhua will have complete 
freedom in the area to report on the protests.
    b.  Ryder to prevent the military from being called for police duty 
without declaration of Emergency by the President ratified by 3/4 of Congress.
    c.  Free Speech Centers must allow for at 'least' 50 days of events 
annually, but preferably closer to 150.  Let debate go on in Congress and Standing 
Committee at will.
    d.  Set up Office of Registrar to keep track of approved events, and to 
arrange for Federal Assistance to localities in policing Free Speech events.  
Organizers must first get approval from local authorities, and local 
authorities must get final approval from Federal government 'if' requesting assistance.
        da.  Use new Civil Service Job appointments to solidify political 
support for changes.
    e.  Establish new elections rules.  Local governments to be totally 
opened up to elections for experimental purposes in 2010, elections in 2012 would 
follow if Standing Committee, Congress, and President find the experiment 
successful.  In addition, Congress members can be 'approved' or 'disapproved' by 
the people, if approved their re-election is secured.  If not, the Party will 
decide disciplinary action, or potentially replacing representative all together.
    f.  Create Parole Commission to review cases of so called 'Political 
Prisoners'.
        fa.  Parole Commission to number 5, appointed by President and 
confirmed by Congress.
        fb.  Cases to be broken into 3 sections.  No hope (aka. significant 
risk), rehabilitated (aka. Paroled), and Oops!  (aka innocent).  
        fc.  Significant risk prisoners remain in jail, Paroled must 
apologize for their actions, and will retain their criminal record as well as be 
subject to police watches, but be released.  Innocent to be released immediately 
and their records expunged.
        fd.  'Current' standards to be used for governing risk.
        fe.  Commission to receive office space and staff naturally to help.

2.  President to make case to both Standing Committee and Congress formally.  
Make sure Xinhua is on hand to advertise the changes to the world, so that 
the West realizes China is very serious about liberalizing, and deserving of 
increased trade benefits and greater respect globally.
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