CHINA:China's president Hu Jintao has set out his stall ahead of a key Communist Party meeting this autumn by calling for greater grassroots representation.
He has stressed, however, there would be no move away from single-party rule.
"To develop socialist democracy is our long-term goal," President Hu said in a speech published yesterday to hundreds of senior cadres at the Central Committee's Party School, which is where rising political stars are formally trained.
"The government should expand political participation channels for ordinary people, enrich the forms of participation and promote a scientific and democratic decision-making process," he said.
Internal policy debates have intensified in the run-up to the 17th National Party Congress, which is due to be held in Beijing in the autumn.
At the five-yearly event, Mr Hu is expected to further consolidate power through a leadership reshuffle and set the country's agenda for the next five years. It is also an opportunity to brush aside rivals.
During the keynote speech to the party school, he said the leadership would also step up efforts to ensure broad public support by promoting improved social services, environmental protection and greater social equity.
The focus of these efforts was Mr Hu's personal political campaign to promote a "harmonious society", reducing the income gap between the newly rich of the east coast and the still poor of the heartland.
His speech was carried with great fanfare on the front of the party organ, the People's Daily newspaper, and other state-run media.
The party has made "active and safe" efforts toward this end and Mr Hu said there was a need for greater grassroots democracy, but he warned that "expanding citizens' political participation must be orderly".
Among the top officials attending the speech was the party's central committee, leaders of the military and security services, representatives of all cities, provinces and regions and the heads of top government organisations - an important show of unity for Mr Hu's political agenda.
"Reform and opening up is an inevitable path to realise the Chinese nation's great rejuvenation . . . and should be pushed forward unswervingly," he told them.
While economic reforms since the 1970s have turned China from an isolated, poor country into the world's fourth-largest economy, the pace of industrial change has not been matched with political reform.
Since the pro-democracy movement around China was crushed in 1989, there has been no movement to introduce universal suffrage and the Communist Party holds on to power with a tight fist.
The theory is that democratic reform is less important than maintaining stability - a major issue in a country of 1.3 billion people - and the focus of efforts has been on developing "socialism with Chinese characteristics" and on narrowing the gap between rich and poor.
The party with 70 million members, which has ruled China since the 1949 revolution brought it to power, also hopes to cement its grip on power by stamping out widespread corruption within the ranks.
Mr Hu urged cadres to put the fight against graft in an "even more prominent position."
"Party committees at all levels must fully recognise the long-term nature, difficulty, and complexity of the struggle against corruption," he said.