Thank you, Maran.
Yes, I think, based on my personal experience communicating with friends inside the government, that even the top leaders recognize the importance of the rule of law for business itself, if not for other things. The problem is, as I said, with the nature of the system and also the interest groups.
Earlier today I said that two Chinas exist in China. One China is called China Inc., formed gradually over the past 20 years after the Tiananmen Square massacre. This China Inc. formed because the Chinese government realized they had to incorporate the intellectuals and the capitalists, otherwise they would not survive. Then, for reasons of survival, they formed a very strong interest group in China.
They used a few strategies to survive. First was economic growth, that without growth the legitimacy would be lost overnight. Second was to keep stability and increase the police force to build up the stability-preserving system, which takes the general public as enemies. Third was nationalistic sentiment, the so-called patriotic education. And fourth, corruption became one of the strategies for the Chinese government to survive. Corruption gives the intellectuals, the elites—economic elites, intellectual elites, political elites--at each level, local officials, the opportunity to corrupt. Whatever they want to do, that's all right, except for anything that challenges the power of the central government. They actually use it as an exchange for loyalty. Over time, this will form, and has already formed, a very strong interest group that even the top leader cannot break.
So they recognize the importance of the rule of law, not only for other things but for economic growth. They need the rule of law, but they are in a position where they would not be able to break the interest group. That is why Premier Wen Jiabao came out to say what he said. What he said does not indicate that he wants to do something. Instead, it indicates that he's just lost hope in the system. He wants to say it, he wants to cry out for that, before he retires.
To solve this problem, we cannot work only with the government; we also have to look at the civil society, the people. We have to engage directly with the people inside China, and we have to help them develop and build up the power, the democratic forces. Without that, I don't think the interest circle, which I've just described to you, will be broken by itself.
Thank you.