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CHINA

A Tougher Mood

The Legislature Tackles Taiwan, Crime and Reform

By Todd Crowell and David Hsieh / Beijing

WHEN PREMIER LI PENG addressed the annual session of the National People's Congress (NPC) last year, the mood in Beijing was notably different. He spoke of "peaceful reunification" with Taiwan. This year, Li's tone hardened as the Nationalist-ruled island bubbled to the top of the national agenda. "The Chinese government and people are determined -- and able -- to safeguard the territorial integrity of the motherland," said the PM in his opening speech last week. As if to underscore his point, the People's Liberation Army announced that it would conduct fresh missile drills in the Taiwan Strait. Li also warned the United States against trying to "split the motherland."

A tougher posture toward Taiwan and the U.S. weren't the only manifestations of a changed political climate in China. Since the NPC's 3,000 delegates last assembled in the Great Hall of the People, President Jiang Zemin has launched a campaign to "talk politics" and boost socialist values. This year's conclave, which lasts two weeks, also opened amid growing concerns about crime and personal safety.

That issue was sensationally highlighted by the murder last month of Li Peiyao, a vice-chairman of the NPC. He was killed by one of his own bodyguards, a member of the People's Armed Police who had broken into his house evidently intent on robbery. The incident greatly embarrassed the top leaders. It also triggered a shake-up in the 800,000-strong PAP, whose commander, Ba Zhongtan, is considered a Jiang protégé. Ba was retired, and his force was barred from protecting senior cadres at the NPC.

A sense of deteriorating law and order pervades many segments of Chinese society, but especially residents of cities. According to a recent survey, 26% of respondents in six major urban centers said they felt insecure, while 44% of these reported that they or their relatives had been crime victims. "I'll bet we would not be worse off working in New York," says one Beijing taxi driver. "Maybe they will do something about the situation now that Li [Peiyao] has become the latest victim," adds another resident of the capital.

An equally important issue for the Congress is corruption among officials. Earlier Jiang spoke on the subject to the Communist Party's powerful Discipline Inspection Commission. His speech, later reprinted in the national press, was essentially in line with his "talk-politics" drive. "If the cadres don't control their own behavior, how can they [expect] to control others and require them to be honest?" he demanded. "It is one of the most important aspects of building the party, especially in this new era."

As usual, though, the weightiest item of the NPC agenda is economic affairs. Much of Li Peng's keynote address was given to the need for more government control over the increasingly complex economy to ensure orderly development and social stability. The authorities, he said, hoped to scale the nation's double-digit growth down to 8% annually and to keep inflation below 10%. Despite the government's recent successes at tempering price rises, costs were still "on the high side," Li noted.

Already endorsed by the party last September, the country's 9th Five-Year Plan is expected to be formally approved by the NPC. In the ensuing five months, though, there have been some subtle shifts in emphasis. There is a greater stress on the environment and better ways to husband national resources. Mentioned in passing among the party's "recommendations" to the NPC, environmental protection has recently become one of the most talked-about themes.

Insiders expect lively debates on planning priorities. Should agriculture take precedence, or should there be further efforts to create a socialist market economy in practice as well as in theory? The latter would mean giving more attention to the country's existing assets -- such as trying to make large state-owned enterprises profitable -- and less to new, and possibly inflationary, investments. The plan is likely to recommend streamlining and reorganizing the 1,000 or so "backbone" state ventures but not privatizing them.

The government has been taken to task for letting investment get out of control soon after Deng Xiaoping's reform-boosting southern tour of early 1992. Among the chief critics of such unplanned, helter-skelter development is Vice-Premier Zhu Rongji, who is the architect of Beijing's successful efforts to cool the overheated economy and curb inflation. The latest Five-Year Plan, whose hallmark is moderate, measured growth, bears his personal stamp.

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