CHINA’S TOP legislator, Wu Bangguo, has said that this year’s political priorities include improving the social security system, introducing a socialist legal system and promoting fairer economic growth but there was no sign of any increased openness in the political system.
Delivering his annual work report to China’s annual parliament, the National People’s Congress (NPC), Mr Wu addressed stability issues.
“China is in an important period of strategic opportunities for its economic and social development as well as a period of serious social problems,” he told delegates gathered in the Great Hall of the People in central Beijing. Mr Wu, the second-highest ranking official in the Communist Party, described the party’s tasks to ensure stability as “arduous and formidable”.
China’s urban-rural wealth gap has widened in recent years to the point that incomes in countryside are just a third of what people earn in the cities, which the Chinese leadership has identified as a threat to stability.
There is also discontent about China’s limited healthcare coverage and poor pension provision.
Mr Wu said the state would gradually set up a new satisfactory old-age pension system for rural residents. The law broadly aims to establish a safety net of pension, healthcare and unemployment benefits, provide free primary and secondary education, and assist the migration of rural residents to cities.
“The standing committee will, in this year, focus on promoting social harmony and stability, and strengthen oversight of the work to solve problems affecting people’s well-being,” he said.
Mr Wu is chairman of the standing committee of the NPC, which meets all year round and carries out most of the business of the NPC. The annual meeting of 3,000 delegates from all over the country formally approves decisions made during the year.
Mr Wu said the congress would pay particularly close attention to economic and social development in Tibet, the vast western region of Xinjiang and other ethnic minority areas. Tibet was hit by violent anti-government riots two years ago, and ethnic riots in July left nearly 200 dead in the Xinjiang capital of Urumqi.
He ruled out the prospect of political reform when he said that the Chinese government had been studying parliaments around the world. The congress would also focus on fighting climate change and improving the functions of the government.