By Li Hong, People's Daily online

It is laudable that President Hu Jintao and the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), which Hu also heads, have decided to inject more transparency and democracy into governance, in the ruling party's hope to help it better adapt to global trends, and simultaneously, increase governing efficiency.

The catch-phrase from the just concluded Fourth plenary session of CPC Central Committee, the elite powerhouse which rules on all key issues of China, is "enhancing intra-Party democracy". Insightful and resourceful political watchers have explained that CPC would try to achieve intro-Party democracy via improving the Party's congress (convened every five years) and its election mechanism.

The Party has come a long way, getting rid of traditionally ideological dogfights and embracing economic reform and globalization, but it still has a long, long way to go. The country has been traumatized in history by different crusades launched by the Party, including the 1958-1960 Great Leap Forward and the 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution. The fight did not come to an end till Mr Deng Xiaoping went to Shenzhen in early 1991 to reignite economic reform, effectively putting out inner-party ideological bickering.

Many are murmuring "China model", and some are quietly mimicking it. But it is no time for the Party to brag about it or be self-complacent, because there are always rooms for improvement. Despite colossal success it has attained, many blemishes remain in China, among them, people's gripes about a rising stratified society, and their ever-rising yells at official corruption, show no signs of fading.

And, the usher-in of the Internet era and prospering of blog-space have revolutionized the reading and interaction of Chinese people, so it is natural for the country's educated mass and prospering middle class to compare domestic politics with other systems outside of China's borders. Clearly, no one can deny their ability to tell good from bad.

The last thing for the Party and its leadership is a system of political inertia and rigidness, which would make it irresponsive to changing times and rising demands of a pluralistic and sophisticated public at home and a complex world abroad. Isolation has long been proved to be suicidal, while inaction and refusal to progress means one could be swept away by the tide.

Although time and again the Party has said no to Western-style plebiscite, decision-making within the ruling party could be done by balloting. Hu Jintao said earlier this year: "The realization of intra-Party democracy must rely on the guarantee of all Party members' democratic rights to know, to participate, to vote and to supervise all internal affairs of the Party."

So, in the Party pundits'eyes, a flowing line out of CPC doctrine approved at the latest Beijing plenary session, is to beef up teams of high-level Party officials through democratic, open, competitive and merit-based selection methods -- in other words -- voting. "The communique said the Party should encourage best people to stand out from peers to take key Party or governmental positions,"a commentary by the Xinhua News Agency read.

China watchers abroad have picked up the new wording of Intra-Party Democracy, and, for sure, their interest in its evolving process and its potential mark on China politics and the country's moderation will amount.

And, a ruling Party and government, with broad representation of 77-million Party members' wills, is to be less rigid and authoritarian, and more dynamic and democratic, which dangles the prospect of a majority mandate.