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China warning at annual congress
BEIJING, China -- China's Premier Zhu Rongji has opened the annual National People's Congress (NPC) in Beijing, issuing a blunt warning that urban and rural frustrations could threaten the country's economic future. In a swansong to a parliament putting the final touches on a new generation of leaders, Zhu said resentment in the city and countryside threatened the prosperity of China's 1.3 billion people. "We must exert a great deal of effort to resolve the problems of back pay for workers and overburdened farmers," Zhu told the 3,000 delegates in a 90-minute address in Beijing's Great Hall of the People. While 74-year-old Zhu has helped China emerge as one of the world's fastest growing economies under his five-year tenure -- with an average annual growth rate of nearly 8 percent over the past five years -- the country faces a swathe of economic and social woes as it reforms. "We are clearly aware that there are still some outstanding problems in China's economic and social life," he said, of the growing gap between rich and poor, rising unemployment, and stagnant incomes among the 800 million people in the countryside. In his final report to the annual two-week session of parliament before retiring, Zhu said the Communist Party would have to work hard to lift the tax burden on farmers, find work or social security benefits for the growing army of unemployed and build a social safety net for the poor. In a bid to propel the economy forward, Zhu called for more radical capitalist-style reform, more opening of China's markets to foreign competition and the closure of inefficient companies -- steps bound to inflict still more pain. The world's fastest growing major economy should expand at least seven percent in 2003, with "hard work," Zhu added, praising progress attained under his tenure. "Our great motherland already stands at a higher historic point of departure as it sets out on a more glorious long march ... to the cause of building socialism with Chinese characteristics and achieve victory upon victory on the road of progress," the outgoing premier said. In less than six years, Hong Kong and Macau have returned to Chinese hands and China has been admitted into the World Trade Organization. Beijing also recently won its bid to host the 2008 Olympics. "When Zhu Rongji first took office, China was in a very difficult time: we had lay-offs, severe floods, the Asia financial crisis." said NPC delegate Xiao Yutian. "But the government faced them with confidence and achieved a lot." The 13-day People's Congress meeting will mark the culmination of sweeping leadership changes pre-approved by the Communist Party last year, in the first orderly transfer of power in China's communist history. Zhu is expected to transfer power to his protégé, Vice Premier Wen Jiabao, 60, and China's President Jiang Zemin, 76, will be replaced by Vice President and party chief Hu Jintao, 60. -- CNN Beijing Bureau Chief Jaime FlorCruz, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report
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