CHINA: BEIJING: JIANG ZEMIN OPENS THE 15TH COMMUNIST PARTY CONGRESS

Рет қаралды 9,828

9 жыл бұрын

(12 Sep 1997) Mandarin/Nat
Chinese President Jiang Zemin has urged Chinese leaders to push new economic reforms that critics fear will usher in privatization and weaken state control over the economy.
Opening the 15th Communist Party Congress in Beijing on Friday, Jiang gave no hints of loosening the Communist Party's hold on the government and military.
He also repeated offers to hold talks with Taiwan on ending hostilities, but threatened to use force if the island claims independence.
The party congress, held once every five years to allocate choice posts to the powerful and map out policies, is Jiang's first without his mentor, Deng Xiaoping, who died in February.
Whether he can manoeuvre supporters into powerful jobs will be a key indication of his power.
More than 2-thousand party members listened to Jiang's two and a quarter-hour speech inside the cavernous Great Hall of the People.
Jiang's speech bore the hallmarks of his campaign to secure his position at the head of the party's collective leadership.
His endorsement of bolder reforms to cure ailing state industries appealed to liberals, his hard line on social order and corruption to conservatives, and his threat of force against Taiwan to the military.
Jiang also sought to cast himself as Deng's heir, praising him as the pragmatic architect of China's rise to prosperity.
SOUNDBITE: (Mandarin)
"The issue of the (Communist Party) flag is very important. The flag is the direction, the flag is the image, the unshakeable structure of the party line of the 11th Communist Party congress, third session, 11th plenary, upholding Deng Xiao-ping's theory unswervingly. After Deng Xiao-ping's death, the whole party should attach a high degree of consciousness and firmness to this issue."
SUPER CAPTION: Jiang Zemin, Chinese President and General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party
Most of Jiang's speech concerned new cures for ailing state-run
enterprises.
As expected, he called for more mergers and bankruptcies and, most controversially, issuing stock.
He said the state would maintain control of important industries by retaining a majority stake and refuted criticisms that share holding would lead to privatization, capitalism and loss of state power.
Jiang also admitted that shaking up the state-run sector, which employs the lion's share of the urban labour force, would lead to large-scale layoffs.
But he said in the long run the economy and the workers would be better off.
Jiang's recommendations mark a further retreat from the party's roots as the vanguard of the working class and its insistence on control through ownership.
But the party has little choice - nearly half of all state enterprises are unprofitable and labour unrest is already on the rise.
Jiang acknowledged the problems the party must face in shaking up enterprises and retaining popular support - corruption, waste, fraud and diverging incomes between haves and have-nots.
SOUNDBITE: (Mandarin)
SUPER CAPTION: Jiang Zemin, Chinese President and General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party
He pledged more prosperity and continued efforts to fight official graft coupled with firm resistance to challengers to party rule.
In keeping with that tone, Jiang gave only a lukewarm endorsement of political reforms.
He called for streamlining the bureaucracy and maintaining the modest elections for village heads already in progress in some rural areas.
But Jiang's allies in the past two weeks have sought to dampen expectations of immediate changes.
Find out more about AP Archive: www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork
Twitter: / ap_archive
Facebook: / aparchives
Instagram: / apnews
You can license this story through AP Archive: www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...