China's Congress to hand baton to a new generation

PROMISING few surprises but plenty of changes, the 2,977 delegates to China's National People's Congress (NPC) gather today for a session that will vote through a new government line-up, update the constitution, approve revised economic growth targets and pass a full slate of new laws - all in just 17 days.

An official report yesterday confirmed that, as expected, the President, Yang Shangkun, and the chairman of parliament, Wan Li, will step down at the end of the congress, the last of the 1949 revolutionaries to hold top positions. But as they hand on the baton to the new generation, the efforts in the late 1980s to separate the functions of party and government will be abandoned in favour of reinforcing the Communist Party's hold on the state apparatus.

Under the anticipated new line- up, the party chief, Jiang Zemin, will also take the job of president, while Qiao Shi, the former security chief, will head the NPC. By the end of the session all the top state posts are expected to be filled by Politburo Standing Committee members, a move seen by analysts as an effort to pre-empt any possibility the NPC could become an alternative power base in the final years of the ageing paramount leader, Deng Xiaoping.

'If you want a collective leadership, then you need to ensure that there is no possibility of a split between the main organs of power, so you need a parallel structure between party and state,' said one China watcher. Technocrats and non-party entrepreneurs will take some positions but will be kept outside the inner power clique.

While the NPC's political development will be limited, congress officials will stress how China is putting in place a legal framework for the next stage of economic reforms. The NPC spokesman, Zhou Jue, yesterday emphasised how China was moving towards a system of laws. 'We have changed the previous situation where there were no laws or regulations to abide by,' he said.

This will mean updating the constitution, which has fallen far behind the reality of Mr Deng's drive for market reforms. The 'socialist market economy' will replace the former 'economic planning' and Socialism with Chinese Characteristics will be given a statutory basis.

The Prime Minister, Li Peng, will today in his report revise the five-year economic growth target for this year from 6 per cent to about 9 per cent. Arguments about the dangers of economic overheating will be subsumed during the congress by talk of 'signs of vitality' in the economy.

The harsher side of economic reform will be addressed in plans to streamline significantly central government ministries, which means finding work for large numbers of former civil servants.

With relations souring again between China and Britain over proposed political reforms in Hong Kong, any comments by Mr Li will be scrutinised for hints as to how far Peking will react to Friday's publication in the colony of the draft legislation. The Hong Kong stock market is expected to fall further today after weekend attacks from China on Britain's 'perfidious act'. China's official media yesterday expressed 'shock and regret' at the act.