China could see a repeat of the Cultural Revolution’s deadly chaos without “urgent” political reform, Wen Jiabao warned Wednesday in a dramatic parting shot at his final news conference as premier. Wen is widely considered the most progressive of China’s leaders, but analysts said the comments, at the closing of the annual parliamentary session, were his strongest call yet for political reform in the one-party state. “We must press ahead with both economic structural reform and political structural reform, in particular reform in the leadership system of our party and country,” he told reporters, adding it was an “urgent task”. “Without a successful political structural reform, it is impossible for us to fully institute economic structural reform and the gains we have made in this area may be lost,” he said. “Such historical tragedy as the Cultural Revolution may happen again.” The 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution was a decade of brutal chaos launched by revolutionary leader Mao Zedong to bring down what he perceived as “capitalist” forces.
Untold numbers died in the turmoil as students turned on teachers and officials were purged, and that period still haunts the older Chinese generation today.
