CHINA:A new law marks a dramatic shift for the Communist Party, writes Clifford Coonanin Beijing
For the gathered faithful in their military uniforms, traditional costumes, blue business suits or Chairman Mao jackets, this year's National People's Congress, or annual parliament, on the edge of Beijing's Tiananmen Square, was a "victorious" meeting. The official Xinhua news agency said it was, and pretty much 100 per cent of the delegates cast their votes that way, too.
China's ruling communists rounded off the NPC yesterday with a landmark rule enshrining private property in the communist rule book and a wide-ranging keynote speech by premier Wen Jiabao promising to narrow the widening wealth gap.
The landmark property law change stole a lot of the limelight, but for the Communist Party, this sitting of the NPC was all about underlining the government's commitment to social justice and political reforms to stem corruption, because these are the issues most disturbing the faithful among China's 750 million farmers.
"The two great tasks are, first, focusing our energies on developing the productive forces of society, and second, advancing social justice and fairness," the prime minister told the annual news conference for foreign journalists.
Delegates at the congress, which is basically a rubber-stamp parliament but has an increasingly important political function as a forum of debate within the Communist Party, were almost unanimous in their support for the event.
The most important piece of legislation passed was the law guaranteeing the rights for private property - after all, communism used to be all about collectivising everything and saying private property was theft.
The property law is seen as political dynamite and one of the most dramatic shifts in thinking since the communists came to power after the revolution in 1949.
It seeks to give equal protection to state, collective and private property. A revised draft of the law was passed yesterday morning after an unprecedented seven readings since 2002.
"The property law reflects equal status and a just environment for fair competition among state-owned, collective and private enterprises," Lu Baifu, a research fellow with the Development Research Centre of the State Council, told Xinhua news agency.
Mr Wen warned that investment growth was too high and economic development needed to be better anchored. "The speed of a fleet is not determined by the fastest vessel; rather, it is determined by the slowest one," he said.
This press briefing is a carefully orchestrated affair, and questions are prepared long in advance. Sometimes the questions address awkward issues, such as the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989, or the suppression of human rights.
This year Mr Wen was asked about a book published in Hong Kong about democracy and disgraced former leader Zhao Ziyang. He responded tersely, but the remarks were cut out of the official webcast.
"As for the book you mentioned, I don't think there's any connection between that and what I've talked about because I haven't read it," he said.
Zhao is a controversial figure who was ousted for opposing a decision by then paramount leader Deng Xiaoping to send in troops to crush student-led demonstrations for democracy on June 4th, 1989.
A big driver behind most of the new policies was making China a less divided society, which has potentially destabilising effects on the country's political system.
The country's Gini Coefficient, a measure of the wealth gap, reached a potentially risky 0.45 in 2005, according to the World Bank, and 0.496 according to a report of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
Mr Wen said corruption was a result of a lack of checks and balances, and held out the prospect of greater accountability of officials.
His speech touched on a lot of sensitive issues. The door for talks with Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama was always open, he said, as long as he recognised Tibet as part of China and abandoned "splittist" activities.
"We won't just pay attention to what he says, but even more what he does. We hope the Dalai Lama can do more beneficial things for the unity of the motherland and the development of Tibet."