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BEIJING : China's Communist Party will this week endorse President Hu Jintao's economic model for the nation to place more emphasis on the environment and marginalised people, a government spokesman said on Sunday.
The party will change the constitution at its five-yearly Congress that begins on Monday, incorporating President Hu Jintao's ideology of "scientific outlook on development," spokesman Li Dongsheng told reporters.
The move to include Hu's ideology in the constitution is widely seen as a sign that the president has consolidated his power after succeeding Jiang Zemin five years ago.
Scientific development is a catchphrase for a broad concept that, in general, seeks to correct many of the imbalances that have accompanied China's historic economic development of the past three decades.
While many millions of people have been lifted out of poverty and mega-cities have modernised at a frantic pace in China since the late 1970s, it has come at a huge social and environmental cost.
The wealth gap has widened enormously, which, along with corruption, is a big reason behind rising social unrest across the country.
"(China will) pursue a scientific outlook on development that makes economic and social development people-oriented, comprehensive, balanced and sustainable," Hu said in a speech outlining his philosophy last year.
Hu is expected to strengthen his control of the party at the Congress, which will see 2,213 delegates gather for a week at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, occasionally breaking up into small-group sessions in major hotels.
Hu has spent the past five years trying shake off the lingering influence of Jiang, partly by placing people loyal to him in positions of power, and the Congress will be closely watched for further changes in party ranks.
The Congress will also see a leadership reshuffle during which Hu's successor is likely to emerge by being thrust into the nine-member Standing Committee of the Politburo, which is the most powerful organ in the party.
Hu, 64, and Premier Wen Jiabao, 65, are certainties to remain, but other future positions have been the subject of fierce speculation.
Li Keqiang, the 52-year-old party boss of the northeastern province of Liaoning and an ally of Hu, is seen as a front-runner to be promoted into the Politburo Standing Committee.
Another is Xi Jinping, 54, the party chief of Shanghai and one of China's so-called "princelings", the sons of former communist heavyweights who can thank their pedigree for at least some of their political status.
Amid such leadership tensions, security leading up the Congress has been extremely tight, with dozens of dissidents detained or intimidated in an effort to ensure they do not speak out publicly.
One area of major public discontent is an ongoing problem of corruption within the party ranks, an issue acknowledged on Sunday by Li, the spokesman.
"In some areas corruption is still quite serious. Big cases of corruption occur from time to time," he said.
"A very small number of corruption cases involving leaders, especially at the senior and medium levels, has had a very bad impact."
Chen Liangyu, the former party secretary in China's largest city Shanghai, has officially been stripped of his membership in a major graft case, and is now awaiting trial. - AFP/de
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