Global Policy Forum

The Chinese government is using the Communist Party Congress to spotlight its battle against two key impediments to economic development -- corruption within its ranks and swelling unemployment problems that are angering workers across the land. As party delegates sequestered themselves to finalize the selection of new leaders, the labor minister and a top Politburo member moved Monday to convince China's communists and the world that they are undertaking the reforms needed to keep the country moving toward prosperity.

``Any corrupt member, either in high or low position, is set to meet with severe punishment once his misconduct is exposed,'' said Wei Jianxing, a chief of the apparatus that investigates and punishes errant party members, quoted on the front pages of major party and government newspapers Monday.

It was an unusual acknowledgment of possible high-level corruption in the party, whose top ranks have so far been shielded from an antigraft campaign that has snared thousands of government officials and sent hundreds to prison.

As China undergoes sweeping change that is redefining what it means to be a communist in an increasingly capitalist economy, this week's meeting is not only a transition of generations. It's a chance for the party to show the world it can handle the progress it has unleashed.

So everyone up to President Jiang Zemin, whose keynote pep talk to party delegates chronicled his methods of maintaining party primacy while liberalizing the economy, has been exploiting the international spotlight to illustrate how party and government are guiding progress.

Labor Minister Zhang Zuoyi, for example, acknowledged Monday that about 7 percent of Chinese workers are without jobs -- even as he insisted that only those counted under the government rate of under 4 percent were officially unemployed. The higher figure has long been acknowledged as the more realistic one.

Zhang said that, as of the end of September, just 3.9 percent of urban Chinese workers -- about 7.25 million people -- were ``unemployed,'' a status that makes the government responsible for their welfare.

However, another 6 million were registered as ``xiagang,'' literally ``off-post,'' Zhang said. They were not working -- but also not fully unemployed, he said, because they were still receiving benefits.

While the distinction is largely artificial, Zhang said the government considers unemployment of 4.5 percent as the ``planned control target rate.'' He didn't define that term, but China's government routinely sets statistical goals which it then claims to meet.

Zhang said unemployment would worsen as China speeds up bankruptcies of faltering state industries, a process the government considers vital to modernizing its economy, raising competitiveness and generating economic growth to raise tens of millions out of poverty.

Many have already been thrown out of work through such closures -- some 26 million since 1998 alone, Zhang said, a figure even higher than one given Sunday by economic planners. He claimed 17 million of those have found new jobs, many in the burgeoning private sector and in foreign-invested companies. Others, though, are angry -- and showing it.

Large worker protests in several northeastern Chinese cities this spring were broken up by police, who arrested organizers. China allows only one union body, the government-controlled All China-Federation of Trade Unions, and acts harshly against attempts to form independent worker organizations.

The union's Communist Party Secretary, Zhang Junjiu, denied Monday that anyone had been arrested for organizing demonstrations by workers seeking their legitimate rights. If people were arrested, he said, it was ``only in cases where laws have been broken.''

Wei's comments, meanwhile, were aimed at soothing public anger over rampant official abuses that threaten to undermine the fragile acceptance of communist rule.

Anti-corruption is a key theme at the congress, which is expected to install Vice President Hu Jintao to succeed Jiang as party leader and approve policy changes meant to push ahead capitalist-style economic reform. Jiang acknowledged Friday that corruption could threaten the party's very survival. In his speech, he warned delegates that if they didn't stamp it out, they were ``possibly headed for self-destruction.''

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