Yu Tielong was confident that he would win last week's election for chief of Wangshanding village in eastern Zhejiang province. What followed was less expected. Local officials abruptly annulled the poll, ostensibly because some of the candidates weren't present for the voting. The real reason, according to Yu's supporters: he is a member of the China Democracy Party, a new and not yet officially recognized opposition group. And there, in a nutshell, is the story of political reform in China. That Yu was allowed to stand for election is a sure sign of progress. But the annulment of his victory suggests that the ruling Communist Party is not ready to give up its 49-year monopoly on power--not even in small quantities. Says Tianjian Shi, a Sinologist at North Carolina's Duke University: "There is progress in village elections, but it's a long way from a multi-party system."

Yu, a traditional-medicine practitioner, is one of a small group of activists pushing the margins of political dissent in China. Emboldened by Beijing's relatively relaxed attitude these days, they have set up political bodies like the cdp to test the government's sincerity. "They clearly believe this is an opportune time to agitate for further gains," says an Asian diplomat in Beijing. That same optimism allows some intellectuals to call openly for human rights in public forums. Books that deviate from the official line--like Political China, a recent compendium of essays advocating reform--are allowed to be published and sold. And Beijing appears to have increased its threshhold of tolerance with its signing last month of the United Nations' Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. "To realize human rights is the aspiration of all humanity," said Qin Huasun, China's envoy to the U.N. "It is also a goal that the Chinese government has long been striving for."

But actions, not promises, are the true test. And no one should forget that the Communist Party is still the boss. With the economy sagging and sections of the population showing signs of restiveness, Beijing simultaneously is stepping up efforts to stifle organized dissent through intimidation, imprisonment, house arrest or exile. Even those released from prison are kept under tight surveillance. Just ask Xu Wenli, 52, who has survived two decades of repression. One of the leaders of the "Democracy Wall" movement--a campaign against Maoist dogma in the late '70s--Xu was arrested in 1979 and sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment for "attempting to overthrow the government." Now wan and thin, he is still seeking complete freedom. Since his release in 1993, he has been constantly shadowed by plainclothes policemen who eavesdrop on his conversations and videotape his meetings. Two weeks ago, Xu was briefly detained after urging China's legislature to allow independent trade unions and challenging the government to live up to the human-rights covenant.

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