What are the prospects of political reform towards a more democratic government in China? In the period of 1997 2001, Chinese leaders including Jiang Zemin previous President/General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and Zhu Rongji (previous Prime Minister) repeatedly told Party members and the Chinese people that one of the most important goals of the Party and the Chinese government was to establish a democratic political system. In these statements they openly acknowledged that China's political system was not sufficiently democratic. It would be interesting to follow the future course of this development and see how well and how fast the Chinese political system will improve.

In observing the progress towards a more democratic government in China, one should expect it to be a slow process. We can recall that the historical development of a more democratic government in the United States has also been a slow process. The improvement of the American democratic system has taken over 200 years, from the time of slavery, racial inequality and segregation and denying women the right to vote to the present state. This has all happened without changing the name of the democratic government and the open declaration that "all men are created equal." The progress in developing a Chinese democracy cannot be very much faster.

Nevertheless, we can expect China's government to become more democratic in allowing the citizens more freedom and more opportunities to select government officials and to serve in the government. The progress will come...