Xi emphasizes reform as web unblocked

Newly appointed Communist Party Secretary Xi Jinping said on Sunday that China must reform to develop its market economy and enhance the rule of law, with his comments coinciding with easing of censorship on certain web content, Reuters reported, citing state-owned Xinhua News Agency. His remarks on reform were made during a visit to Guangdong, mirroring an at-the-time radical speech made by reformist senior leader Deng Xiaoping in the same province in 1992, which led to a period of rapid economic expansion and reform. Xi’s comments were reported on Monday, the same day that censors unblocked searches for the names of senior party members on China’s Twitter-like Sina Weibo microblog service. Searches for Xi and Vice Premier Li Keqiang among others revealed news articles and user comments, although information connected to Premier Wen Jiabao, whose family The New York Times has alleged to have amassed a fortune, was still barred.