Reform must be in correct direction: Hu Jintao

Beijing, June 26: China is committed to economic and political reforms, but change should ''adhere to a correct political direction'', President Hu Jintao said in a keynote speech published today ahead of a Communist Party meeting.

Internal policy debates have intensified in the run-up to the 17th Party Congress in the autumn, when Hu is expected to further consolidate power through a leadership reshuffle and unveil the country's agenda for the next five years.

''Reform and opening-up is an inevitable path to realise the Chinese nation's great rejuvenation... and should be pushed forward unswervingly,'' Hu told hundreds of provincial- and ministerial-level officials at the Central Party School, which trains political rising stars.

Market-oriented reforms introduced in the late 1970s ended decades of political turmoil and have transformed China from a hungry economic backwater into the world's fourth-largest economy.

But political reforms have virtually stalled since 1989 when troops and tanks crushed student-led demonstrations for democracy centred on Beijing's Tiananmen Square.

The Communist Party, which has monopolised power in the world's most populous nation since the 1949 revolution, has shown no signs of any willingness to ease its grip on power.

''Our country's political reforms must adhere to a correct political direction... and adhere to the party's leadership,'' the People's Daily quoted Hu as saying.

Pictures and news of the meeting, attended by the party's elite 198-member Central Committee and senior military officials, were splashed on the front pages of the People's Daily, the party organ, and other major newspapers.

Hu said socialist democracy was a long-term goal of the party, which has made ''active and safe'' efforts toward this end, adding that grassroots democracy should be ''developed''.

But ''expanding citizens' political participation must be orderly'' and the Party's leading role must be ensured, Hu said.

Hu also emphasised the necessity of his political campaign to promote a ''harmonious society'', Communist jargon for easing social tensions spawned by a widening wealth gap, as well as rising medical and education costs.

Hu called for ''accelerating strategic adjustments to the economic structure'' and ''scientific development'', Hu's catchphrase for sustainable, energy-efficient economic development instead of breakneck growth at the expense of the environment.

He said fighting corruption was ''a long-term, difficult and complicated'' work.

Reuters>