Key reports ready for CPC national congress

The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China concluded a four-day plenum on Sunday, approving a political report to be unveiled at the Party's national congress slated for Thursday.

It also en-dorsed earlier decisions to expel two disgraced senior members from the CPC.

At the end of the seventh and the last plenum of the 17th Central Committee, Party leaders also approved proposed amendments to the CPC Constitution and agreed that "favorable grounds" have been laid and "full preparations" made for the crucial 18th National Congress of the CPC.

President Hu Jintao, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, addressed the plenum, which was presided over by the Political Bureau of the Central Committee, according to a statement issued on Sunday.

Altogether, the Central Committee's 200 members and 165 alternate members attended the key meeting, with members of the CPC's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection — the Party's anti-corruption watchdog —and other leading officials of departments participating as non-voting members, according to a Xinhua News Agency report.

The statement said that Vice-President Xi Jinping, a member of the Standing Committee of the Politburo, made an explanation to the plenum on the draft report to the 18th Party congress and the draft amendment to the CPC Constitution.

The plenum agreed on the documents, both of which it decided will be submitted to the upcoming Party congress for review, according to the statement.

It, however, did not spell out what changes have been proposed for the Party charter.

Several professors with the Party School of the Central Committee of the CPC contacted by China Daily on Sunday night said they believed the amendment will encompass the Party's "latest theoretical innovations". They declined to elaborate.

The last time it was amended dates back to the 17th National Congress five years ago.

The plenum announced that the Central Committee had agreed on a decision made by the Politburo in September to expel Bo Xilai, former Party chief of Chongqing, from the Party for "severe disciplinary breaches".

Bo was stripped of Party membership on Sept 28.

The 63-year-old was removed from public office and his suspected law violations and evidence were transferred to judicial organs for handling.

Also reaffirmed at the meeting was the expelling of former railways minister Liu Zhijun from the Party in May for corruption following the high-speed train collision that claimed 40 lives and injured another 172 near the eastern city of Wenzhou in July 2011.

The plenum praised the attainments the Party has made since its last national congress in 2007.

Undaunted by the volatilities in the world environment and the arduous task of pursuing development, reform and maintaining stability, the leadership under Hu has "conquered all kinds of hardships and risks while relying on all the people of various ethnic groups, and advanced the work of the Party and the government", the statement said.

Over the past five years, the Politburo has maintained growth, kept prices in line, optimized the economic structure and improved livelihoods. It has also deepened reform and promoted social harmony by adhering to scientific development and speeding up transformation of the economic growth pattern, according to the statement.

"The Political Bureau has comprehensively pushed forward socialist economic, political, cultural, social construction and ecological protection ... and achieved remarkable results and maintained a stable and relatively fast economic development as well as social harmony and stability," it said.

Alongside the plenum, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection held a two-day meeting, pledging to intensify anti-corruption efforts.

The commission released a statement after the meeting, warning that anti-corruption is a "long-term, complicated and tough battle", according to a Xinhua report.

The document said the Party is faced with the growing danger of "lacking drive, incompetence, being divorced from the people, and corruption".

The CPC will stick to the guidelines of curbing graft by imposing penalties and preventive measures while giving more weight to prevention, Xinhua quoted the document as saying.