The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) opened a major four-day economic meeting in Beijing yesterday, with efforts to narrow the widening divide between rich and poor likely to dominate the agenda.
The plenary session of the party's central committee will "discuss suggestions" on the 2006-2010 five-year economic development plan, with a view toward "building a harmonious society," the official Xinhua news agency reported.
Against a background of widespread corruption and growing income disparities between rich and poor, President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) has been emphasizing the "harmonious society" theme over the past year.
Last month, state media cited a government study as saying the most affluent one-fifth of China's population earns 50 percent of total income, with the bottom one-fifth taking home only 4.7 percent.
Reforms launched in 1978 have fueled decades of enormous economic development that have transformed Chinese society. Its economy grew by a blistering 9.5 percent in 2003 and last year.
But its rural population -- about 800 million people -- has for the most part been left out of the boom, and many in that group have been protesting widespread graft, industrial pollution and illegal seizures of land for development.
The protests have been growing in regularity and aggression.
Clashes between police and citizens are becoming more violence as thousands -- sometimes tens of thousands -- of unhappy laborers or farmers demonstrate to air their frustration.
Officers often beat and jail protesters, who are also growing bolder in their retaliation against authorities.
Last year, the government logged 74,000 major protests nationwide, a stunning figure in a country so determined to curb potential unrest that it puts dissidents under house arrest around sensitive political anniversaries and tightly watches Internet content.
The closed-door plenum at the Soviet-era Jingxi Hotel in Beijing will be a test of whether Hu, 62, has fully consolidated power after replacing Jiang Zemin (江澤民), 79, as Party chief in 2002, state president in 2003 and military chief last year.
It is Hu's first plenum without his influential predecessor holding some form of office, although Jiang has stacked the Party's upper echelons with his allies.
One focus will be on whether Hu can manoeuvre protege Li Keqiang (
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
UPDATED FORECAST: The warning covered areas of Pingtung County and Hengchun Peninsula, while a sea warning covering the southern Taiwan Strait was amended The Central Weather Administration (CWA) at 5:30pm yesterday issued a land warning for Typhoon Usagi as the storm approached Taiwan from the south after passing over the Philippines. As of 5pm, Usagi was 420km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost tip, with an average radius of 150km, the CWA said. The land warning covered areas of Pingtung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春), and came with an amended sea warning, updating a warning issued yesterday morning to cover the southern part of the Taiwan Strait. No local governments had announced any class or office closures as of press time last night. The typhoon
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