China's Hu: Government to be more inclusive

updated 2:59 p.m. ET Oct. 15, 2007

BEIJING - Chinese leader Hu Jintao pledged to make communist rule more inclusive and better spread the fruits of China's economic boom, in an address Monday to a party congress that offers a key test of his authority.

Hu also offered talks on a formal peace accord with Taiwan, but the vague proposal included preconditions previously unacceptable to the island, which quickly rejected it.

Shying away from the warlike rhetoric that often accompanies such occasions, Hu instead stressing Beijing's preference for a peaceful, negotiated settlement to the 58-year-old conflict with Taiwan.

"We would like to make a solemn appeal: On the basis of the one-China principle, let us discuss a formal end to the state of hostility between the two sides, reach a peace agreement," Hu told the party and military elite gathered in the Great Hall of the People in central Beijing.

Hu's speech is the most public event at the congress, which comes at the midway mark of his decade-long tenure as party chief and head of state.

The weeklong conclave's chief purpose is to reappoint Hu for a second five-year term as party general secretary. A key measure of Hu's influence will be how many of his political allies he can maneuver into top party jobs, including proteges expected to take over when he steps down in five years.

Hu's leadership has never been threatened, but he is largely seen as weaker than past leaders, forcing him to compromise on some top appointments and other decisions. In a sign of possible constraints, Hu's retired predecessor, Jiang Zemin, was appointed to the committee handling the congress' arrangements, state media said Sunday.

In his address, Hu outlined policies intended to make China more prosperous and stable by raising incomes and improving the party's hold on a fast-changing society.

"Obviously we want to see China be able to move forward with both political and economic reforms," Tom Casey, a State Department spokesman, said in Washington. "I don't think I have heard or seen anything coming out of this particular set of meetings that changes our basic views."

More democracy pledged
While offering few specifics, Hu said Chinese citizens would have "more extensive democratic rights" by 2020, China's target year for establishing lasting economic security, even as the party retains its monopoly on political power.

"Contemporary China is going through a wide-ranging and deep-going transformation. This brings us unprecedented opportunities as well as unprecedented challenges," Hu told the more than 2,200 delegates gathered in Beijing's massive Great Hall of the People for the once-every-five-year meeting.

Broadcast live on nationwide television, the far-ranging speech lasting more than two hours and 20 minutes was one of Hu's most important public addresses since taking over as party leader at the last congress in 2002.

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