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The annual session of the National People's Congress held its
preparatory meeting Thursday, electing a 175-member presidium and
agreeing on the agenda for the next 10 days. Key issues expected to
be discussed and addressed at the session are as follows:
Human-based development
The Communist Party of China (CPC) established a new approach to
development late last year, highlighting human-based, all-round,
coordinated and sustainable development. The promulgation of such
laws as administrative permit law and the law on identification
card, the abolishment of vagrant collecting and sending-back
system, the clear-up of over-detention cases are all viewed as part
of the new approach. It is widely believed that the human-based
government administration will be brought up in this year's
governmental work.
Macroeconomic control
China's gross domestic product (GDP) grew an awesome 9.1 percent
in 2003, averaging more than US$1,000 on the per capita basis for
the first time in history. It is generally acknowledged that the
development of iron and steel, cement and other materials sectors
is overheated and the economic development is being bottlenecked by
energy and transport. The government is expected to announce new
macroeconomic control measures that will help prevent inflation and
financial risks, curtail blind investment and low-level duplicated
construction projects so as to ensure a steady growth of the
national economy.
Agriculture, farmers and rural economy
About 98 percent of the people show concern over the problems of
agriculture, farmers and the rural economy, according to a survey
conducted by Xinhuanet.com, China's biggest news website. How to
ensure food security and raise farmers' income has become a top
concern of the Chinese government. According to the "No. 1
Document" issued by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council
at the beginning of the year, the Chinese government will encourage
grain production, cut agricultural taxes and fees for the 900
million farmers and increase investment in agricultural
infrastructure construction and protect the arable land.
Employment and social security
China's registered unemployment rate in cities was 4.3 percent
at the end of last year. About 2.6 million workers had been laid
off by state-owned enterprises, waiting for re-employment. This,
plus the huge army of farmers flocking to cities in quest for jobs,
has brought greater pressure to bear upon the government. The
Chinese government is expected to adopt a variety of measures to
develop labor-intensive industries to ease employment pressure and
strive to bring the social security system to perfection.
Balanced development
The growing disparities between the country's rich eastern
coastal area and the poor western area have gone to an alarming
proportion. Premier Wen Jiabao is expected to expound his approach
on how to rejuvenate the old northeast China industrial bases and
forge ahead with the western China development drive.
Private property
No hitch is expected to write the protection of private property
into the country's Constitution at the current session. While
stressing the right to private property and the right to inherit
private property, the draft amendments to the Constitution also
provide the right of the government to requisition by law private
property on the compensatory basis.
Human rights
The Chinese Constitution will, for the first time, have such
terms as "respecting and protecting human rights" and that will be
conducive to the further development of human rights in China.
Three Represents
The Constitution will also establish the important thinking of
"Three Represents" advanced by Jiang Zemin (The Communist Party of
China must represent the development requirements of China's
advanced social productive forces, the progressive course of
China's advanced culture and the fundamental interests of the
overwhelming majority of the Chinese people) as the guiding
thinking for China.
Government building
The government will intensify the four basic functions:
macroeconomic control, market regulation, social management and
public service. In view of the painful lessons from SARS spread in
2003, the government is expected to give priority to the
improvement of the emergency mechanism to cope with all kinds of
breaking events. The government will also stress the supervisory
roles of the news media.
(Xinhua News Agency March 5, 2004)
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