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Jiang Urges Further Growth At Communist Party Congress
BEIJING -- His retirement at hand, Jiang Zemin moved
Friday to cement his legacy as Communist Party chief
with a sweeping blueprint for tomorrow's China, a land
he says will be safer, less corrupt, wealthier and
able to offer its people a more comfortable life in a
blended system of socialism and the profit motive.
As China's long-awaited Communist Party Congress
convened amid tight security, 2,114 delegates met in
the Great Hall of the People under an outsized hammer
and sickle to name a new generation of leaders -- and
take up the daunting question of what communism means
in a fast-moving global marketplace.
Mr. Jiang, China's president and the party's general
secretary for at least a few more days, sounded the
theme he has made his legacy: the notion of making
sure the party stays relevant, and in power, through
the convulsive changes that it unleashed.
"Our party must stand firm in the forefront of the
times," Mr. Jiang said during his 90-minute address,
aimed at both inspiring party delegates and securing
his place alongside Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping in
China's history books -- something he has carefully
cultivated for years.
"We must move forward, or we will fall behind," said
Mr. Jiang, whose notion of change is a novel one for
the workers' party -- he has invited capitalist
entrepreneurs to join. The congress is expected to
take up that issue as well in coming days.
The National Party Congress, held once every five
years, was called to order at 9 a.m. sharp under a
giant hammer and sickle in the Great Hall of the
People. It convened in a particularly challenging era
for China -- one of convulsive change and the search
for a political system that will stimulate enough
economic growth to maintain stability.
"Holding high the important banner of Deng Xiaoping
theory, we march forward and grow with the changing
times as we head toward the future," said Mr. Jiang
Most expect Mr. Jiang, 76, to be succeeded as
Communist Party chief by Hu Jintao, 59, who also is
widely expected to replace Mr. Jiang as president next
year. Mr. Jiang strode into the congress hall ahead of
a column of leaders. Four behind him, in the usual
stringent order of Chinese politics, was Mr. Hu.
Government Tightens Security in Beijing
Security on Beijing's streets was heavy, with agents
deployed every 6 meters. Red flags flew over buildings
on Changan Avenue, the broad boulevard that runs
across Tiananmen Square.
Minutes before the congress began, at least three
women scattered leaflets outside the Great Hall of the
People before they were bundled into an unmarked
police car and driven away. Police gathered the papers
before reporters could see what they said.
The Great Hall of the People crackled with activity.
Delegates arrived in caravans of tour buses, including
large groups of uniformed military officers in full
winter dress. Minority delegates, including Tibetans
and Mongolians, wore ethnic garb and drank piping-hot
cups of tea.
A red banner hanging from a balcony over the main hall
said: "Warmly celebrate the victorious opening to the
Chinese Communist Party's 16th National Congress."
State television carried the event live, introducing
it with the faithful marching and singing, "Without
the Communist Party, there is no new China."
But while the theme was the future, the ghosts of
China's past lingered.
"Let us begin by mourning for the dead revolutionaries
such as Mao Zedong," said Li Peng, head of China's
legislature. Moments later, the Chinese national
anthem echoed through the hall.
Despite the scarlet-saturated pageantry, secrecy has
prevailed. Though state-run media have taken a
valedictory tone in recent weeks about Mr. Jiang and
his generation, there has been no open discussion
about the details of succession -- or, indeed, any
talk of succession at all.
People's Daily, the party newspaper, on Friday called
the meeting "a very important congress convened at a
time when China has entered a new development stage of
building a society in an all-round way in which the
people can lead a fairly comfortable life and
accelerating the socialist modernization drive."
Party officials have pledged to modernize
once-doctrinaire ideology to keep pace with a
fast-changing, increasingly capitalist society. Mr.
Jiang took up this mantle in his speech, which spanned
68 pages in an English version distributed to
reporters minutes before it began.
Jiang Promises Growth, Modernization
He said China would try to quadruple its gross
domestic product between 2000 and 2020 and increase
its international competitiveness "markedly." Under
Mr. Deng and Mr. Jiang, China has pursued what it
calls a "socialist market economy" to modernize and
develop. Major increases in urbanization will help
fuel the growth, Mr. Jiang said.
He identified areas of particular economic concern,
including raising rural incomes and lowering
unemployment. But his speech gave only passing mention
to political reform, a hot-button issue with other
countries, and he said the current system should be
strengthened rather than overhauled.
Mr. Jiang also talked up his personal campaign known
as the "Three Represents" to bring entrepreneurs into
the party and amend its constitution to give them a
formal role.
Mr. Jiang was picked to lead the party in 1989 by
then-supreme leader Mr. Deng, who launched the
country's economic reforms a decade earlier after the
1976 death of Mr. Mao, founder of communist China.
Mr. Jiang's campaign is aimed at keeping a party that
still calls itself the "vanguard of the working class"
in control of a society where reform has unleashed
dizzying changes. Some people have gotten rich, but
many face upheaval as state industry sheds jobs in an
attempt to compete.
Preparations for the congress included sweeping
efforts to tighten security and to block
demonstrations. Hotels in Beijing have been ordered
not to accept Tibetans or Muslim Uighurs from the
restive Chinese northwest as guests, according to
employees contacted at four hotels.
Nevertheless, activists used the event to appeal for
political change.
A group of 192 dissidents inside China, in an open
letter this week, urged delegates to release political
prisoners and expand direct elections.
"Improvements in economic development cannot cover up
more and more obvious problems of deep social peril,"
they said.
Copyright © 2002 Associated Press
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