Somehow I must have deleted by mistake an entire post praising Zona Europa (ESWN) for his translation of Chapter 30 0f the Chinese Peasant Survey. (If someone can remind me how to retrieve an old post via google’s cache, I’d appreciate it.)

Whether I can recover it or not, please be sure to see his translation. It reminds us that there are true reformers in China, though whether they have any clout to create meaningful change is certainly anyone’s guess. (Especially after the book was banned — a fairly meaningless gesture in terms of the book’s availability, but not a good sign for those delighted at the government’s original endorsement.)

Thinking of Wen’s efforts to make a real difference for China’s rural poor made me recall someting I wrote in a post not that long ago:

I believe now that the CCP is not monolithically evil. I know there’s a number of CCP members who truly hold a vision of a free and democratic China. Such reform-minded individuals have always been a part of the CCP. Unfortunately, they are up against a formidable entourage of party dinosaurs who cannot simply be swept under the carpet. Nice guys in the CCP always seem to finish last.

That’s what I kept thinking as I read ESWN’s great translation: The decent reformers are there, at least in terms of economics, but so often it seems the reform itself doesn’t materialize. (As far as political reform, I’ve given up for now; as we know, it’s either stalled or moving backwards, with Jiang Yanyong’s arrest just the latest painful example.)

Okay, later. Really bummed that I lost that entire post.