China's leaders taken to task
by Willy Lam for CNN
 |  Nearly 3,000 delegates are attending China's annual session of parliament in Beijing. |
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HONG KONG, China -- Balance, not rapid growth, is the central theme of this year's session of China's National People's Congress.
Yet the leadership of President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao has already been taken to task for its so-called "scientific theory of development."
While China's economy expanded by an exuberant 9.1 percent in 2003, Wen said in his much-awaited government work report Friday the target for this year would only be a modest 7 percent.
This year, authorities are placing much more focus on balancing the needs and aspirations of different sectors and regions -- particularly the poor and the disadvantaged.
In line with the new "putting people first" credo, Wen has given special dispensations to peasants, rural laborers working in cities, and the estimated 30 million Chinese living below the poverty line.
The cost of cutting agricultural taxes, setting up employment programs and a more comprehensive social security system, as well as improving rural health care and education facilities is seen adding up to a gargantuan 196 billion yuan.
Wen has received high marks from academics who have faulted previous leaders such as ex-president Jiang Zemin and ex-premier Zhu Rongji for putting GDP growth way above the wellbeing of the masses.
As Chinese Academy of Social Sciences sociologist Lu Xueyi pointed out, "Beijing has always stressed the importance of 'walking on two legs;' yet it is clear that one leg -- economic growth -- is longer than the other, which is social [well-being]."
Wen's even-handed approach to modernization has won the support of the nearly 3,000 parliamentarians, who hail from all of the 31 provinces, autonomous regions and directly administered cities across China.
As the 61-year-old head of government noted in his work report: Beijing's goal is to "foster interaction between east, central and west, and to encourage give and take, synergy and cooperative development [among the three regions]."
|  Some officials in Shanghai have expressed concern at the emphasis on farmers. |
Wen and his ministers have made clear that the bulk of state investments will henceforward go to the rural central and western provinces -- as well as the three rust-belt northeast provinces.
But deputies from the rich coastal belt, particularly the greater Shanghai region, have expressed fears the erstwhile "dragonhead of growth" will have to slow down to fit Beijing's egalitarian concerns.
A number of officials and deputies in Shanghai have criticized the Hu-Wen team for deviating from ex-president Jiang's now-famous "Theory of the Three Represents," which essentially says that the Communist Party should represent the "foremost" production forces and the most advanced culture.
"Hu and Wen have given top billing to the needs of farmers and jobless workers -- who can't be said to be spearheading the most sophisticated productivity or culture," said a Shanghai-based economist.
Some Shanghai officials have dubbed Wen "pinmin premier" ("premier of poor people") instead of "pingmin premier" ("people's premier"), which is what his admirers call him.
Another gaping hole in the 16,000-character report is that it has failed to strike a balance between economic and political reform.
To the credit of the Hu-Wen administration, the Fourth Generation leaders have paid much more attention than their predecessors to the rule by law and supervision by the masses.
A major thrust of the Hu-Wen team's statecraft is contained in this slogan: "Responsibility comes with power; the exercise of power must be subject to supervision; and compensation must be paid when infringing upon the rights [of the people]."
In his work report, the premier also laid a lot of store in supervision by the people's deputies, intellectuals, ordinary folks, as well as the media.
In terms of the mechanisms of governance, the Hu-Wen group has played up "democratic and scientific decision-making," meaning collective decision-making based on thorough consultation with a broad range of experts.
Yet Wen's NPC report has no reference to the possibility of real political reform such as expanding village-level elections to higher administrative levels.
This is despite Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing's assertion last weekend it was a "big mistake" to think Beijing was not interested in people's democratic rights.
In addresses to NPC members, Hu, Wen and other cadres have waxed eloquent on the need to promote "structural and systemic innovation" in addition to new ways of thinking.
However, parts of Wen's NPC report hacked back to old norms championed by Deng Xiaoping and Mao Zedong, such as taking "maintenance of socio-political stability as the over-riding task" of the party and state.
Given the growing instances of disgruntled workers and peasants venting their frustrations through detonating bombs and other quasi-terrorist means, the Hu-Wen leadership has ordered the police and the para-military People's Armed Police to nib all agents of instability in the bud.
Wen even revived Chairman Mao's old slogan of "the union of soldiers and the people" as well as the fusion of the needs of peace and war.
The new leadership's hyper-nervousness about losing control is also reflected in its recent hard line on political developments in Taiwan, and especially in Hong Kong.
While Hu and Wen have in the past week wisely kept their pronouncements on Taiwan and Hong Kong to a minimum, it is quite clear the imperative of one-party domination has got the better of new ways of thinking as well as "democratic and scientific decision-making."
