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China passes reforms, Li says farewell

A Chinese nun, left, and monk, representatives of religious groups, arrive at the Great Hall of the People to attend the National People's Congress in Beijing yesterday. PHOTO: REUTERS

China's legislature yesterday approved a sweeping restructuring of the country's Cabinet to help the government grapple with enormous economic and social changes that two decades of reform have unleashed.

The plan, announced last week, aims to streamline China's sprawling ministerial system -- devised over decades of communism that focused heavily on state planning -- and boost the policing of financial systems to prevent corruption as markets open to the world.

The changes bring China's system closer to American and other Western models. The largely ceremonial National People's Congress endorsed the government's proposal by a vote of 2,699 to 88.

The plan consolidates trade and economic operations and, for the first time, creates a single Cabinet-level oversight agency for banks that are dealing with more foreign investment than ever. While pulling back from economic control, China wants to make sure that endemic corruption and graft don't sink its ship.

The National People's Congress runs until March 18. It has yet to take up its biggest task -- officially installing the successor to President Jiang Zemin (江澤民) and anointing other leaders as part of a generational shift.

The presidency is expected to go to Vice President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤), who succeeded Jiang as general secretary of the Communist Party in November.

Li Peng (李鵬), outgoing head of the legislature, expressed confidence in its work and its future.

"Recalling the past, we take great pride in our daily prosperity. We look toward the future of our motherland with full confidence," Li said in his final work report yesterday morning.

The speech marked a farewell for Li, who retired from the Communist Party's Politburo in November and is stepping down as legislative chief.

The Cabinet restructuring appeared aimed at helping organize economic policies to achieve those goals.

"There is an extreme need for this," said one delegate, An Zhi-sheng of the northern province of Shaanxi. "If we don't do it, there will be a big waste of personnel. We'll have one department doing something and another department doing the same thing."

Among the changes are the renaming and reorganization of the State Development Planning Commission, the agency long entrusted with carrying out the traditional five-year plans of the Communist Party's controlled economy. China has spent the last two decades on a path of capitalist-style reforms.

The changes represent a fundamentally different approach to regulation by China's government, which has long favored distributing administrative duties among many ministries.

Most other major countries have, during the past century, consolidated operations into fewer Cabinet-level departments or ministries in the interests of efficiency.

Also yesterday, the agriculture minister said Chinese farmers have been affected less than expected by membership of the WTO, which China joined in December 2001. He expressed confidence in the industry -- a top focus of the government's efforts to eliminate rural poverty.

"I don't believe agriculture in China is in trouble," Du Qinglin said on the sidelines of the legislature. "The overall trend is good."

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