Communist Party Congress opens in China
President vows to address social, environmental ills
BEIJING - Chinese President Hu Jintao promised to address social fissures, a degraded environment, and rampant corruption during his second term as China's top leader, but he all but ruled out more than cosmetic political reform in his opening address yesterday at the ruling Communist Party's 17th National Congress.
Hu spoke extensively about his "scientific view of development," a set of lofty, vague principles supporting harmonious economic, social and political development.
The congress will enshrine the phrase "scientific view of development" into the party's constitution alongside the political slogans of Mao, Deng Xiaoping, and Jiang Zemin, elevating Hu into the pantheon of leaders as he begins the second and final term as party general secretary, head of state and military chief.
This speech kicked off the weeklong event held once every five years to extol past leaders and welcome a roster of younger officials newly elevated to leadership roles. Party members have described the succession contest, conducted in secret, as fractious. But the congress proceedings, which are purely ceremonial, present a façade of seamless unity and continuity.
In the main auditorium of the Great Hall of the People, under a giant hammer and sickle, Hu appeared on a rostrum with all the other members of the Politburo and the Central Committee, arranged in precise hierarchical order. They were joined by party elders including Jiang, Hu's direct predecessor, and at least two stalwarts of an earlier era, Wan Li and Song Ping, both more than 90 years old.
In keeping with tradition, Hu's address, which lasted two and half hours, stressed the correctness of the rhetoric and guiding philosophies of the past. Though the text of the address ran to 64 pages, Hu discussed few specific government programs and provided only broad hints about what he intends to do between now and 2012, when under party retirement rules he will make way for a new leader.
"China is going through a wide-ranging and deep-going transformation," Hu told the 2,200 party delegates and a national television audience. "This brings us unprecedented opportunities as well as unprecedented challenges. On the whole, the opportunities outweigh the challenges."
Hu tweaked one well-established goal, the quadrupling of economic output between 2000 and 2020, saying that the party would now aim for a four-fold increase in "per capita GDP" instead of overall gross domestic product over that period.
The switch to a per capita target reflects Hu's emphasis on people-centric goals. But China's population increase - estimated at about 200 million during the 20-year period - makes the goal more ambitious. That suggests that Hu thinks the economy can outperform what he and his predecessors considered possible, or prudent, at the 2002 congress. 