DATE=3/4/2000
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
TITLE=CHINA PARLIAMENT
NUMBER=5-45581
BYLINE=ROGER WILKISON
DATELINE=BEIJING
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: China's National People's Congress -- the
country's legislature -- opens its annual
plenary session Sunday, during which it will discuss
the government's budget and economic development plans
as well as public concerns about corruption and
unemployment. VOA correspondent Roger Wilkison
reports Beijing's sidewalks have been swept clean,
beggars and other undesirable elements have been
rounded up, and tight security has been imposed for
the 10-day legislative session.
TEXT: Security is especially heavy this year around
the Great Hall of the People, where the legislature
meets, following a series of protests by members of
the banned Falun Gong exercise and meditation
movement. The venue faces Tiananmen Square, where
police Friday grabbed at least 10 members of the sect
as they unfurled banners or raised arms in
meditation poses.
But the focus at this year's session of the
legislature is likely to be on the pervasive
corruption that has undermined popular support for the
ruling Communist Party.
Western diplomats in Beijing who monitor party affairs
say they expect one of the highest level officials
convicted on corruption charges to be executed during
the 10-day session. The man in question is Hu
Changqing -- a former deputy governor of southern
Jiangxi province -- who was sentenced to death last
month for taking bribes worth 658-thousand dollars.
Premier Zhu Rongji -- who on Sunday will address the
NPC, as the Congress is known -- is expected to call
for what one diplomat describes as a no holds barred
war on corruption. The execution of Hu Changqing
would send a signal to party and government officials
that the leadership is serious about controlling
corruption.
Not to be outdone, the legislature announced Saturday
that one of its own highest officials -- Standing
Committee Vice Chairman Cheng Kejie -- has been
removed from his post while undergoing investigation
for economic crimes. Congress spokesman Zeng Jianhui
-- speaking through an interpreter -- says Mr. Cheng
asked for leave.
INTERPRETER ACTUALITY
The Standing Committee of the NPC agreed that he will
not take part in this year's session. Anyone who has
committed crimes will be punished in accordance with
law.
END ACTUALITY
Party and government leaders and the state-owned news
media have been reluctant to talk so far about China's
biggest corruption scandal -- the smuggling of nearly
10 billion dollars worth of oil and other goods
through the port of Xiamen that some reports say
involves a protege of President Jiang Zemin.
Diplomats say public disclosure of that scandal could
taint the party leadership.
NPC spokesman Zeng says the more than 29-hundred
delegates will put equal emphasis on approving
legislation drafted by the body's standing committee
and strengthening the congress's oversight of the
government budget and economic plans. He says their
main tasks will be to revise a law on corporations
that will facilitate reform of state-owned enterprises
and the drafting of a law to provide those firms'
laid-off workers with unemployment insurance.
The NPC is often derided as a rubber-stamp
parliament, but legislators have been more vociferous
in recent years about their prerogative to review
government spending plans. Premier Zhu is expected to
ask for approval of a trillion-dollar plan designed to
boost economic growth in poor hinterland provinces.
Although it is not on the agenda, the Taiwan question
will be a hot topic among the delegates. Premier Zhu
is expected to repeat Beijing's line that China will
not sit idly by if Taiwan keeps dragging its feet on
reunification. NPC spokesman Zeng says the Congress
will echo Mr. Zhu's warning to Taiwan in advance of
the island's presidential elections two weeks away.
INTERPRETER ACTUALITY
How to resolve the question of Taiwan early and
realize the complete reunification of the motherland
has become a more prominent issue facing the entire
Chinese people . . . The election for regional leaders
of Taiwan must not lead to Taiwan's independence or
the separation of the motherland. It must not change
the fact that Taiwan is part of China.
END ACTUALITY
The NPC is also expected to discuss changes that are
needed in China's laws, regulations and policies to
prepare for the country's expected entry into the
World Trade Organization. (signed)
NEB/RW/PLM
04-Mar-2000 05:32 AM EDT (04-Mar-2000 1032 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
|
Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list
|
|
|
