The Fifth Session of the Ninth National Committee of the Chinese
People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), China's top
advisory body, is scheduled to begin Sunday afternoon and conclude
on March 13, said Qi Huaiyuan, spokesman for the session at a press
conference held on March 2. He also introduced the preparatory work
done for the session and answered questions from correspondents
home and abroad.
Qi
said that during the session, CPPCC members are scheduled to hear
and discuss a report on the work of the Standing Committee of the
Ninth CPPCC National Committee and a report by the Ninth CPPCC
National Committee on the handling of motions since the last
session.
They are also scheduled to attend as non-voting delegates the Fifth
Session of the Ninth National People's Congress, and hear and
discuss the work report by Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji and other
reports by some government ministries and judicial departments.
Li
Ruihuan, chairman of the CPPCC National Committee, will deliver a
speech at the end of the session.
According to Qi, all preparatory work for the session has been
done. By Saturday noon, 1,511 of the 2,267 CPPCC members had
reported to the Secretariat of the session, while 172 motions on
various issues and 327 texts of speeches to be delivered during the
session had been received.
In
the past year, Qi said, the CPPCC has been holding high the flags
of patriotism and socialism, served consciously for national work,
grasped the two topics of unity and democracy, carefully
implemented its functions of political consultation, democratic
supervision and political affairs participation, made in-depth
investigations and actively reflected public opinion, thereby
making great contributions to the reform, development and
maintenance of social stability.
CPPCC has made great contributions to the making and perfecting of
some laws and regulations of China, Qi said. Last year, special
committees of the CPPCC organized several research and consultation
works giving suggestions to the drafting and amending such laws as
those on investment fund, cultural heritage protection, prevention
and control of desertification and protection of the interests of
returned overseas Chinese. Special seminars were held by CPPCC
members to discuss important matters with government bodies and
media so as to provide a say to the country's policy making
process, according to Qi.
In
response to a question on how the CPPCC reflected public opinion,
Qi said that in 2001, the CPPCC National Committee received more
than 5,000 written suggestions from its members, which are mainly
in relation to wages, public security, environmental protection,
poverty reduction and medical care. The CPPCC National Committee
forwarded some 1,500 of the suggesting letters to government
departments concerned soon and they were welcomed by the
government.
Answering a question about Taiwan issue, Qi said that the CPPCC
firmly supported the policies and proposals by the central
government. Taiwan is an inalienable part of China, so the CPPCC
strongly opposed the view to separate Taiwan. The Taiwan
authorities' move of inching toward "independence of Taiwan" aims
to eventually split Taiwan from China, posing an extreme danger. Qi
said CPPCC judges Taiwan authorities not just by its words but by
its deeds, which matters most.
(China.org.cn by Chen Chao March 2, 2002)