Chinese Communist Party's national congress opens; Xi Jinping tipped to become new chief

The 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) that will choose its new leadership opened in Beijing Thursday at "the decisive stage of completing the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects", China's official news agency Xinhua said.

Top leaders of the Communist Party of China (CPC) at the inaugural ceremony of ...

2300 party delegates from around the country along with senior leaders like Jiang Zemin, Wu Bangguo, Wen Jiabao, Jia Qinglin, Li Changchun, Xi Jinping, Li Keqiang, He Guoqiang and Zhou Yongkang were present at the opening ceremony of the Congress at the Great Hall of the People.

The five-yearly event will elect a new generation of leadership and adopt the new agenda of the party. Xi Jinping is tipped to become the new leader of China from the Congress.

Delivering a political report at the opening of the congress, Hu Jintao said China must firmly march on the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics to ensure that the country can attain the grand goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects by 2020. The congress is of great importance as China has entered a "decisive" stage, Hu told about 2,300 delegates and specially invited delegates in the gigantic Great Hall of the People in central Beijing.

"Throughout the past 30-plus years of continuous exploration for reform and opening up, we have held high the great banner of socialism with Chinese characteristics and rejected both the old and rigid closed-door policy and any attempt to abandon socialism and take an erroneous path," Xinhua quoted Hu as saying.

Hu said in building socialism with Chinese characteristics, China bases itself on the basic reality that the country is in the primary stage of socialism.

"Our overall approach is to promote economic, political, cultural, social, and ecological progress, and our general task is to achieve socialist modernization and the great renewal of the Chinese nation," he said.

In his report, Hu stressed that together with Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory and the important thought of Three Represents, the Scientific Outlook on Development is the theoretical guidance the Party must adhere to for a long time.

Hu also put forward the goal of completing the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects and deepening reform and opening up in an all-around way.

The building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects is a crucial link in China's modernization drive. In light of the target set at the 13th CPC National Congress held in 1987, by the middle of the 21st century, China's gross national product will reach the level of moderately developed countries, its people will live a better-off life and the country will basically attain the goal of modernization. nepalnews.com