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A survey launched by China's largest news website,
www.xinhuanet.com, operated by Xinhua News Agency, on "what issues
in the upcoming NPC and CPPCC sessions attract you most" revealed a
long list, including anti-corruption, regional unbalanced economy,
income gap, increasing farmers' income, educational charges, legal
rights of migrant farmer workers, emergency response system for
public health, and the so-called March 20 Taiwan referendum.
Anti-corruption is the top concern for some 83 percent of
netizens who took part in the survey. Netizens say that the central
government's determination to fight against corruption can be seen
in punishing at least 13 ministerial-level officials for
corruption, including former vice-governor of Anhui Province Wang
Huaizhong and former Minister of Land and Resources Tian Fengshan,
in the past year.
"We still need a lot of improvements in the emergency response
system for public health, though we have such a system after the
outbreak of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in
2003,"said Zhang Baolan, director of the Medical Department of the
Central Hospital under the Headquarters of General Staff of the
People's Liberation Army (PLA).
During the annual sessions, NPC deputies and CPPCC members are
expected to hear the government work report, a report on the plans
for economic and social development and budget report, work reports
of the NPC Standing Committee, the Supreme People's Court and the
Supreme People's Procuratorate.
These reports will review the past year's work of the central
government and also will deploy the work for the new year, which
will cover hot issues concerning the public's interests.
Professor Wu Jiang from the National School of Administration
said that the central authorities have done "efficient and
effective" work in the past year, like fighting against SARS,
making efforts to curb unemployment, increasing farmers' income,
and realizing an annual economic growth rate of 9.1 percent.
"More importantly, the new central government has adopted a
down-to-earth attitude and formed a work style of seeking truth in
their leadership," said Wu. "All this may let the public believe
that the reports made by the government are not only a summary of
the past year's work, but also will exert far-reaching influence on
the future life of the Chinese public."
(Xinhua News Agency February 24, 2004)
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