BEIJING, March 15 (UPI) -- China's parliament ended Sunday with leaders seeking to maintain the single party state apparatus controlling the reigns of government while communist ideology struggles to be relevant, responsible, and representative in guiding the destinies of 1.3 billion people.
The second session of the tenth National People's Congress in Beijing concluded with rubberstamp endorsements of government policy directions for the next year and revisions to the constitution promising greater legal protection to the private sector.
Balloting on eight separate measures was followed by a news conference with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao speaking about institutions, policies and law as the appropriate means to handle problems in society and noting that members of the Communist Party were not above the law or constitution. He also commented on the upcoming election in Taiwan.
The concept of transparent democratic representation remains vastly different between Western and Chinese understanding of the terms. The role of the legislature in the People's Republic of China is to provide the imprimatur on policy decisions made by the Communist Party, not to provide an open forum for the exercise of government.
The vote during the final assembly of the ten-day event was a foregone conclusion among the 2,903 deputies gathered within the cavernous Great Hall of the People, a neo-Stalinist monolithic multifunction monument abutting the west side of Tiananmen Square. All eight items on the agenda were approved by more than 90 percent of the deputies casting ballots.
The first three votes dealt with approving actions taken by the administration in 2003 and policy directions for 2004. These included resolutions on the government work report delivered by Wen, one on plans for China's economic and social development headed by Ma Kai who is in charge of the National Development and Reform Commission, and the 2003-2004 budget reports given by Minister of Finance Jin Renqing.
Critical parts of China's domestic agenda in 2004 are to tackle growing disparities between urban and rural residents, create 14 million jobs for nine million people entering the workforce and five million laid off workers, bolster finance reform, improve weak labor and social security systems, and redress the imbalance in regional development.
The session also passed resolutions on the NPC Standing Committee work report by its Chairman Wu Bangguo, as well as similar documents from Xiao Yang, President of the Supreme People's Court and Jia Chunwang, Chief of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, a shadowy organization copied from the former Soviet Union and responsible for oversight of public security investigations and court activities.
This country abides by parallel constitutions: one for the 66 million members of the Chinese Communist Party and one governing the entire People's Republic of China. In the last vote, taken on Sunday afternoon, 13 revisions to the state constitution were ratified by more than 98 percent of the NPC delegates present.
The first change, one made within the preamble of the constitution, enshrined the "Three Represents" as having "guiding status in the political and social life of the State." This concept, put forth by Jiang Zemin in 2000, extends the Communist Party's constituency to "the leading forces of production and culture and the interests of the overwhelming majority of the Chinese people," wording that recognizes the roles of technology, the entertainment industry, and capitalism in modern Chinese society.
The move further solidifies the status of former President and party General Secretary Jiang as the country's political patriarch. Jiang stepped down from the top party post in November 2002 and from the presidency in March 2003, but still retains final say over China's armed forces as Chairman of the Central Military Commission. In deference to his seniority, he was first to appear on stage as leaders took their seats during public NPC sessions. Jiang was a silent central figure of the proceedings.
China is now governed by "Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory and the important thought of the Three Represents." Jiang, who turns 78 in August, cannot be identified by name in this pantheon because he is still alive.
Other political revisions to the constitution included greater functions and power for the position of president to "engage in state affairs" as well as the old role of receiving foreign diplomatic representatives on behalf of the PRC. Analysts will have to wait for president Hu Jintao to fully emerge from the shadow of Jiang Zemin.
A provision on "respect for, and preservation of, human rights" was added to the constitution. China's definition of human rights focuses on the right to food, shelter and work but ignores freedom of expression, the right of eligible voters to select national and provincial leaders, and puts severe restrictions on information access and the right of assembly.
While China firmly remains a communist country insofar as political ideology and practice, the most far-reaching changes in the constitution dealt with amendments embracing features of capitalism.
Changes to the government's land expropriation and requisition systems, measures to support the non-public (individual and private) sectors of the economy, and improving protection of private property reflect what Vice-Chairman of the NPC Standing Committee Wang Zhaoguo called "the realities of the basic economic system in the primary stage of socialism and meets the objective requirements for the development of productive forces." Approximately two-thirds of China's GDP is generated by the non-public sector.
In his work report Wen said there would be measures to ensure that privately owned enterprises "receive the same treatment in investment, financing, taxation, land use and foreign trade." He promised to "protect legitimate rights and interests and improve government service to and oversight over them, so as to support and encourage qualified non-public enterprises in their efforts to grow stronger and larger."
At a press conference after the voting ritual, Premier Wen was asked about the March 20 presidential elections in Taiwan. He said the referendum on the ballot was a push toward independence that, "under the pretext of democracy," posed a threat to stability across the Taiwan Straits and "challenged the universally acknowledged one-China principle."
