China opens key party session, reform tops agenda (2)

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CHANGING SITUATION, NEW CHALLENGES

Thirty-five years later, both China and the world have dramatically changed. As the Cold War ended, the East and the West headed toward globalization.

The West stumbled over a global financial crisis, which singled out China's economic performance. But, being the world's second-largest economy, China now sees its once two-digit growth slowing to less than 8 percent.

With most Chinese already having a full stomach and living in a relatively safe and prosperous society, impatience and discontent about other more aspirational matters are growing.

A thin chance of owning an apartment is the problem for Chen Hao, a college graduate working in Beijing, currently the most expensive city in China in terms of housing price.

"An apartment in the Beijing suburbs sells for 20,000 yuan per square meter and I earn 5,000 yuan a month," he said. "My girlfriend says 'no house, no marriage.'"

The government's performance has not improved as satisfying as the economy.

Bureaucracy runs deep. It took 14 months to build a nursery in east China's Zhejiang Province, for example, but gaining government approval to build it and getting the nursery building past the inspection took two years and stamps from 133 departments.

Deteriorating corruption among civil servants worries many. Dozens of high-ranking officials have been sacked for corruption over the past year, which not only showed the anti-graft resolve but also a grave situation.

Amid fast urbanization, the countryside is losing young laborers, land and wealth while the cities are running short of resources and facing worsening pollution.

Poverty has not been totally wiped out. Nearly 200 million Chinese, including villagers living only 160 km away from Beijing, are living under the absolute poverty line by the World Bank standard (one U.S. dollar per day).

What's more, people are beginning to question the sustainability of the country's economic growth. Among the three known growth engines, investment still overwhelms while domestic consumption and export are relatively weak.

All these questions need to be answered soon. That's why high expectation is placed on the ongoing party session.

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