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China's Top Leadership Readies Meet to Set Agenda for Coming Years
China's top leaders will set the political and economic agenda for the coming years when they gather Monday in Beijing for a plenary meeting of the Communist Party Central Committee.
Some 350 members and alternates began arriving Sunday at the Jingxi Hotel in western Beijing for the secretive meeting which this year has announced the 10th five-year economic plan (2001-2005) as the main topic of discussion.
It is the fifth time the Central Committee is assembling for a plenum since it was elected at the party's 15th congress in September 1997.
"Nominally these are secretive meetings. For the last decade or so it has been an open secret when they meet, but still the specifics of the meetings and any sideline decisions are completely closed to public scrutiny," one Western diplomat in Beijing said.
Besides focusing on China's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the market openings it has agreed to for the first five years of its WTO membership, the plenum is expected to discuss succession politics and "party building," he said.
"They are trying to phase out the five-year economic plans, so from this meeting what we expect to see is a further blue print on the financial sector, banking and state-enterprise sector reforms," the diplomat said. (Source: chinadaily.com.cn)
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