China set to chart next five years

BEIJING, China -- Nearly 3,000 delegates to the National People's Congress (NPC) have gathered as China faces daunting challenges in reforming its economy and tackling corruption.

Their 10-day meeting, which opens in Beijing on Monday, will review the five-year economic plan for 2001-05 and hear government policies for reforming China's flagging agricultural sector and troubled state industry.

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The lawmakers -- hand-picked by local-level Communist Party officials across China -- will also review plans to build a social security system to cushion the blow of reform and hear renewed vows to crack down on rampant corruption.

Analysts do not expect major new policy initiatives beyond details of the five-year plan, which was released in October.

But the NPC has much on its plate, with a need to create jobs for some 40 million people to be laid off by state firms and 40 million farm workers to be shed in the next five years.

CNN Beijing Bureau Chief Rebecca MacKinnon says representatives are not directly elected but many citizens still expect them to live up to their name.

'A rubber stamp'

The agenda and legislation they are expected to pass was decided last week behind closed doors in a much smaller plenary meeting -- led by the congress chairman, Li Peng.

Li Fan of The World and China Institute says: "They used to be a rubber stamp, now they're still a rubber stamp but you have to push it harder to make it work.

"Some voice objections and vote the way they want. They lobby for local interests.

"But since the majority of delegates come from the government and communist party they can still be pressured to pass things. Still they feel a greater responsibility to their constituents than they used to."

The congress has never failed to pass anything put before it, although in recent years on issues like law enforcement and corruption, large numbers of "no" votes have reflected dissatisfaction.

Cracking down on government corruption will be a hot topic again this year. So will economic reform as China gets ready to enter the World Trade Organization.

This year's congress also coincides with a renewed government campaign to stamp out the Falun Gong meditation group. Five people believed to have been Falun Gong followers burned themselves in Tiananmen Square on Chinese new year.

The parliamentary session will be an opportunity to make sure leaders in the provinces support the crackdown.

Fire extinguishers

Police guarding Tiananmen Square next to parliament headquarters at the Great Hall of the People had fire extinguishers at hand in a sign of vigilance against protests by the Falun Gong.

In a speech on Saturday, Ye Xuanping, vice chairman of an advisory body to the NPC, said "the struggle against the Falun Gong cult will be complex, protracted and acute."

The NPC closes on March 15, when Premier Zhu Rongji will hold his annual new conference -- a live televised event that gives reporters their only chance each year to put questions to the blunt-speaking champion of economic reforms.

For many analysts, the relatively powerless parliament pales in interest compared to manouevers in the run-up to the 16th Communist Party congress next year, when five of the seven men at the top are set to retire from the Politburo Standing Committee.

They include three men who have run China for at least the past five years; party chief and state President Jiang Zemin, NPC Chairman Li Peng and Zhu. Jiang, Li and Zhu retire from their government posts in 2003.

Amid speculation about the succession, the NPC session offers a look at a new batch of provincial governors, some of whom could rise into top jobs as the "fourth generation" of Chinese leaders, following the eras of Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping and Jiang.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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