Private property among changes China's leaders to debate

BEIJING - Promising economic and political change, China's new leaders opened a meeting Saturday to debate reforms that will move the country closer to capitalism, including the first guarantee of private property under communist rule.

President Hu Jintao and communist party leaders at the four-day meeting also were expected to consider a more stable legal system and measures to encourage private investment, diplomats and foreign analysts said.

The meeting coincides with final preparations for China's first manned space mission next week and reflects the party's desire to link itself to the nationalistic fervor of a historymaking triumph, helping to repair a reputation battered by corruption scandals.

Details of the agenda of the plenum of the 16th Communist Party Congress weren't immediately released. But the official Xinhua News Agency said it would push ahead economic reforms that have let millions of Chinese lift themselves out of poverty.

It marks "another turning point and a new starting point in China's reform process," Xinhua said.

The meeting comes as Hu, little understood after nearly a year as party general secretary, tries to establish himself as China's leader after the 13-year rule of Jiang Zemin.

Hu, 60, has moved cautiously as he tries to consolidate power, sharing control with Jiang allies on the party's ruling nine-member Standing Committee. Jiang, 77, remains influential as chairman of the commission that runs China's military.

Though Hu has called for a more accountable and responsive government, he hasn't offered a detailed vision.

As the plenum began Saturday, Xinhua said the 24-member ruling Politburo would present a report on its work to the lower-ranking, 356-member Central Committee - the first time the closed, secretive elite has submitted to outside scrutiny, even by another party body.

Party leaders who with Hu took office in November also face a wide array of other problems: rural poverty, banks mired in bad loans and job losses at state industry.

Though incomes have risen sharply, the average Chinese earns only about $700 a year. Communist leaders worry that anger at poverty and official abuses could spin out of control, threatening the party's monopoly on power.

The proposed constitutional change that outsiders say would protect private property comes after a 1999 amendment that declared private business an "important component" of the economy.

The amendment could enshrine the thinking of Jiang, the former leader who invited capitalists into the party, according to earlier reports by state media.

Jiang's ideology is aimed at keeping the party relevant and entrenching its control amid a growing private economy by drawing entrepreneurs into its ranks.

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