Flying colors for China's leaders
From CNN Beijing Bureau Chief Jaime FlorCruz
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China's new leaders have many historical legacies to deal with.
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The Second Session of the 10th National People's Congress runs in Beijing from March 5 for ten days.
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BEIJING, China (CNN) -- As some 2,900 delegates sit down to open China's annual session of parliament, Communist technocrats are getting good reviews for passing some tough tests.
In the past year alone, they have had to deal with the deadly SARS epidemic, the bird flu, rising unemployment and violent clashes over property rights.
Wen Jiabao's first overseas visit as premier came as China was facing criticism for failing to contain the SARS epidemic, which was spreading through the world's most populous nation.
Wen bridged the credibility gap with his low-key and self-effacing style, admitting inadequacies and pledging action.
"These are really very competent politicians in the Chinese sense of the term, and managers of what is a vast, complicated, continental economy with many historical legacies to deal with," says WIlliam McCahill, an advisor at international law firm Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering.
China's economy has been surging at nine percent a year but other official figures are just as staggering.
More than 120 million farmers are crowding into towns and cities, seeking non-farming jobs, while some twenty million people are unemployed and 30 million are living in poverty.
The gap between the rich and the poor is growing. Recent Chinese surveys show the average urban income is three times higher than those in rural areas.
The plight of poor farmers is expected to dominate the discussions, with moves afoot to boost rural incomes by cutting taxes and fees and giving farmers more rights over their land.
"I have read in the papers that many, many People's Congress delegates have already started talking about the agenda for what's being put on the table in the coming Congress and many actually voiced the so-called 'sannong' question -- which is the agriculture, countryside, and peasants," says Jiang Wenran, an associate professior in political science at the University of Alberta.
Top leaders are now often seen on television, visiting farmers and even helping some of them get their backpay from unscrupulous employers.
Beyond the farm, leaders are having to deal with a spate of other issues -- bank reforms, private property, relations with Taiwan and Hong Kong, and human rights. (On the agenda)
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China's government is trying to be more transparent.
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But experts are feeling more optimistic this time round, saying China's new leaders are aiming for better governance by injecting transparency and accountability into the system.
"One never hears any mockery of them as you occasionally heard about previous leadership styles, and again, the sort of modesty, the work ethic, the down to business, abstemious personal style, I think, has played well here," says McCahill.
After a slow start, and some initial fudging of the facts, their vigorous response to the epidemics has improved their political standing and hastened their consolidation of power.
But they still face many domestic and diplomatic problems -- problems that they need to solve just as effectively if they are to become China's pre-eminent power-brokers.
