Communist Party must stay in charge: President Hu Jintao

BEIJING – China’s Communist Party must stay firmly in charge as the nation embraces economic and social change, President Hu Jintao said yesterday in an agenda-setting speech vowing tightly controlled political reforms.

In a ‘state of the nation’ report to the 17th Party Congress, Hu said that the country he has led for five years would pursue an increasingly open economy but also had to surmount social fissures and an environment battered by breakneck growth. “Our economic growth is realised at an excessively high cost of resources and the environment,” he said, drawing dutiful applause from carefully chosen delegates.But Hu said the country’s future was promising – and even some political loosening was possible – as long as the Communist Party maintained its long-unchallenged domination.”China is going through a wide-ranging and deep-going transformation.This brings us unprecedented opportunities as well as unprecedented challenges,” Hu told over 2 200 delegates – one of them his predecessor Jiang Zemin, who appeared to doze through stretches of Hu’s recital of slogans and goals.”We must uphold the Party’s role as the core of leadership in directing the overall situation and coordinating the efforts of all quarters,” Hu said in the speech lasting more than two hours.The five-yearly Congress is a chance for Hu to spell out his agenda for the next half of his presidency, entrench his doctrine of a ‘harmonious society’ free of discontent, and promote officials who will enforce his policies and probably emerge as top leaders five years hence.But the tight security, with rings of police stopping ordinary citizens getting anywhere near the carefully vetted delegates, underscored how wary Hu and his colleagues are of any challenge to their one-party rule.”Look at all those police,” observed cab driver Wang Jiandong.”Not even a bird could fly over.”As the economy grew, the Party would also allow the country’s increasingly diverse and often restive citizens to have a bigger say in government, he said.”Citizens’ participation in political affairs will expand in an orderly way,” he said.Hu also promised to develop a more technologically savvy defence force.But he suggested that China’s international environment was generally benign and offered an olive branch to Taiwan, the self-ruled island that Beijing claims as its own.Nampa-Reuters”Our economic growth is realised at an excessively high cost of resources and the environment,” he said, drawing dutiful applause from carefully chosen delegates.But Hu said the country’s future was promising – and even some political loosening was possible – as long as the Communist Party maintained its long-unchallenged domination.”China is going through a wide-ranging and deep-going transformation.This brings us unprecedented opportunities as well as unprecedented challenges,” Hu told over 2 200 delegates – one of them his predecessor Jiang Zemin, who appeared to doze through stretches of Hu’s recital of slogans and goals.”We must uphold the Party’s role as the core of leadership in directing the overall situation and coordinating the efforts of all quarters,” Hu said in the speech lasting more than two hours.The five-yearly Congress is a chance for Hu to spell out his agenda for the next half of his presidency, entrench his doctrine of a ‘harmonious society’ free of discontent, and promote officials who will enforce his policies and probably emerge as top leaders five years hence.But the tight security, with rings of police stopping ordinary citizens getting anywhere near the carefully vetted delegates, underscored how wary Hu and his colleagues are of any challenge to their one-party rule.”Look at all those police,” observed cab driver Wang Jiandong.”Not even a bird could fly over.”As the economy grew, the Party would also allow the country’s increasingly diverse and often restive citizens to have a bigger say in government, he said.”Citizens’ participation in political affairs will expand in an orderly way,” he said.Hu also promised to develop a more technologically savvy defence force.But he suggested that China’s international environment was generally benign and offered an olive branch to Taiwan, the self-ruled island that Beijing claims as its own.Nampa-Reuters