Political reform now the biggest challenge for China.

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun/Daily Yomiuri)

Political reform now the biggest challenge for China

Yomiuri

BEIJING

A tofu shop owner suffers heartache after she is accused of being "bourgeois" for building a new house. The scene is from the popular 1984 Chinese movie "Hibiscus Town," and depicts the tragedy of the Great Cultural Revolution that ran from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s.

"From early in the morning until it got dark, I worked hard, wearing away the handle on my mill and making a hole in my pan," the heroine says. "Have I exploited someone or violated any law?"

Eventually, the government confiscated the heroine's …