The Fifth Session of the Ninth National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), China's top advisory body, is scheduled to begin Sunday afternoon and conclude on March 13, said Qi Huaiyuan, spokesman for the session at a press conference held on March 2. He also introduced the preparatory work done for the session and answered questions from correspondents home and abroad.

Qi said that during the session, CPPCC members are scheduled to hear and discuss a report on the work of the Standing Committee of the Ninth CPPCC National Committee and a report by the Ninth CPPCC National Committee on the handling of motions since the last session.

They are also scheduled to attend as non-voting delegates the Fifth Session of the Ninth National People's Congress, and hear and discuss the work report by Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji and other reports by some government ministries and judicial departments.

Li Ruihuan, chairman of the CPPCC National Committee, will deliver a speech at the end of the session.

According to Qi, all preparatory work for the session has been done. By Saturday noon, 1,511 of the 2,267 CPPCC members had reported to the Secretariat of the session, while 172 motions on various issues and 327 texts of speeches to be delivered during the session had been received.

In the past year, Qi said, the CPPCC has been holding high the flags of patriotism and socialism, served consciously for national work, grasped the two topics of unity and democracy, carefully implemented its functions of political consultation, democratic supervision and political affairs participation, made in-depth investigations and actively reflected public opinion, thereby making great contributions to the reform, development and maintenance of social stability.

CPPCC has made great contributions to the making and perfecting of some laws and regulations of China, Qi said. Last year, special committees of the CPPCC organized several research and consultation works giving suggestions to the drafting and amending such laws as those on investment fund, cultural heritage protection, prevention and control of desertification and protection of the interests of returned overseas Chinese. Special seminars were held by CPPCC members to discuss important matters with government bodies and media so as to provide a say to the country's policy making process, according to Qi.

In response to a question on how the CPPCC reflected public opinion, Qi said that in 2001, the CPPCC National Committee received more than 5,000 written suggestions from its members, which are mainly in relation to wages, public security, environmental protection, poverty reduction and medical care. The CPPCC National Committee forwarded some 1,500 of the suggesting letters to government departments concerned soon and they were welcomed by the government.

Answering a question about Taiwan issue, Qi said that the CPPCC firmly supported the policies and proposals by the central government. Taiwan is an inalienable part of China, so the CPPCC strongly opposed the view to separate Taiwan. The Taiwan authorities' move of inching toward "independence of Taiwan" aims to eventually split Taiwan from China, posing an extreme danger. Qi said CPPCC judges Taiwan authorities not just by its words but by its deeds, which matters most.

(China.org.cn by Chen Chao March 2, 2002)