Vested interests won't block China's reforms: party official

By Megha Rajagopalan BEIJING (Reuters) - China's Communist Party will fight opposition to its reform efforts from those who risk losing power because of the changes, a senior official said on Friday. The remarks come a week after China unveiled a landmark package of social and economic reforms, abolishing a controversial system of forced labor camps and further freeing up markets. "Vested interests can pose some difficulties for reform," said Xie Chuntao, president and editor in chief of the journal of the Party School of the Communist Party's Central Committee. "There will certainly be some people who, when deprived of power, will not be happy. But those people are not the decision-makers for reform - it's the people above them," he told reporters. Critics have said the ambitious package of reforms will be difficult to implement at the local level, where government officials often prioritize their own interests over central government goals. "Some will benefit from the reforms, and some will not," Xie said. "That's what makes reform particularly difficult." The central government must educate local leaders about new reform measures, Xie said. The reforms package called for greater judicial independence, but local judges answer to party bosses, and their decisions are often swayed in politically sensitive cases. Graft is also rampant among local officials, a problem President Xi Jinping has attempted to tackle with an anti-corruption drive. Xie also praised pilot programs that require officials to disclose their wealth to superiors before being promoted. "This is a good system," he said. "If the official's assets include houses and bank deposits, it will be hard to hide." Some practices by local officials, such as buying homes cheap and selling them at a higher price, were improper and must be weeded out, he added. Wealth disclosure by government officials has received mixed approval from central authorities. Top leaders want to widen the policy even as authorities have arrested grassroots legal activists who urged officials to publish their assets. Last week's reform measures followed months of consultation with local and provincial government leaders and party bodies, Xie said, calling the system a kind of democratic process. Party leaders have long touted "intra-party democracy" as an responsive, if largely opaque, mode of governance. (Reporting by Megha Rajagopalan; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)