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Political season of `change' begins in China

By P. S. Suryanarayana

SINGAPORE March 3. A new political season of anticipated "change'' began in China, even as the first session of the 10th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) started its deliberations in Beijing today.

The CPPCC, China's highest advisory body, is expected to set the general political tone, as different from a definitive state agenda, for the 10th National People's Congress (NPC) whose first session will begin in Beijing on Wednesday.

Today's meeting of the CPPCC's was presided over by Jia Qinglin, in the presence of prominent state leaders like China's President, Jiang Zemin, and Vice-President, Hu Jintao who, besides being the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC), is widely regarded as Mr. Jiang's heir-apparent for the post of the country's presidency.

The others present at today's CPPCC's meeting included Li Peng, the head of the outgoing ninth National People's Congress, and the Prime Minister, Zhu Rongji.

Besides taking note of the progress report on the activities of the previous (ninth) National Committee of the CPPCC, today's meeting signalled the commencement of a process in the specific context of the socio-political goal that the 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) had set last November.

The stated goal is to create a "well-off society'' in an "all-round'' fashion. The CPPCC, which "represents'' the Chinese people at large, will supplement the efforts of the NPC, the country's Parliament.

The primary significance of the prospective NPC session is that it will choose China's top leaders, inclusive of President and Prime Minister.The international spotlight is on the style and substance of the "Chinese model of succession'' which, in the opinion of China-watchers like John Wong and Zheng Yongnian, might be institutionalised even as the leaders of the CPC learn from the mistakes and blunders of the failed communist states. It is in this context that the work of the CPPCC has acquired some relevance to the deliberations of the prospective NPC session in Beijing .

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