Answers to question
(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-03-05 07:32

Do you want to know who is to fill which position in the national leadership on the Chinese political scene?

Are you curious about the direction and the evolution of the Chinese governance structure?

Do you need hints on how much the country will reform and open further after 30 years?

Want pointers about official bottom-lines in reconciling the need for growth and that for environmental well-being?

Or, more specifically, do you want information about the forcefulness of the next round of macro-economic controls in addressing the overheating growth engines?

Watch out for this year's annual session of the National People's Congress (NPC), which opens this morning.

The year 2008 carries multiple significance for the Chinese. This is the 30th anniversary of the reform and opening up strategy, which has thoroughly transformed the national economic landscape. In a matter of five months or so, the nation will see its long-held Olympic dream come true.

And, besides all the routine items on its annual schedule, such as review of work reports of major government agencies, the 11th NPC will scrutinize a blueprint for administrative reforms in the years to come. More specifically, a reform package featuring the so-called "bigger ministry" concept for the State Council, the central government, will be presented for discussion on March 11. The widely anticipated and well speculated scheme will show us how the top level of the Chinese leadership responds to the loud calls for political reforms.

A traditional centerpiece of the annual meeting is the report Premier Wen Jiabao delivers this morning to the national lawmakers on behalf of the central government. Since this is the beginning of a new term of national leadership, his report will look back on the past five years. For most of us, the most important part may be how Wen and his comrades define the state of the country and what ideas they have come up with about the wealth gap, regional disparities, and public concerns about rising prices as well as inadequate services.

Many are waiting to see how the central decision-makers act to implement the Scientific Outlook on Development the Communist Party of China accentuated at its 17th National Congress. Clean and sustainable development may inevitably put pressure on the country's need for decent growth. The answers will be in the development plans, budgetary reports, and so on.

For results of the most anticipated elections of new leaders of the national legislature as well as the central government, you have to wait until the last few days.

(China Daily 03/05/2008 page9)