Hu: China reform will not copy West

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BEIJING, Nov. 7 (UPI) -- President Hu Jintao Thursday ruled out patterning China's political reforms after those in the West.

Addressing the opening of the Chinese Communist Party's 18th Congress in Beijing, Hu, who is expected to step down and hand over the leadership to Xi Jinping, said China will continue to reform its political structure but will never copy a Western political system, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

"We must continue to make both active and prudent efforts to carry out the reform of the political structure, and make people's democracy more extensive, fuller in scope and sounder in practice," Hu said.

He said the party should give high importance to systemic building, give full play to the strength of the socialist political system and draw on the political achievements of other societies.

"However, we will never copy a Western political system," he said, Xinhua reported.

China has been under one-party Communist rule since 1949 but under Hu, there have been a number of reforms.