Chinese leaders map out five-year growth plan
China's Communist Party has opened a high-level meeting to discuss the country's next five-year economic plan. There's speculation that political reform could be a hot topic, with Premier Wen Jiabao recently calling for more free discussion inside the ruling party.
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The meeting is also being attended by President Hu Jintao, along with a host of top Communist Party leaders.
The plenum of the roughly 300-member Central Committee in Beijing will run until Monday.
Interview: Anne Meijdam in Beijing
It will review proposals for the next five-year programme on national economic and social development, as China prepares to overtake Japan as the world’s second largest economy.
Beijing-based journalist Anne Meijdam said although the meeting's agenda is confidential, it is believed to be aimed at greater freewheeling capitalism.
"Though having said that, the gulf between the rich and the poor is a big issue right now in China because the leaders want a more harmonious society with the poor getting a little bit richer and the rich getting a little but less rich," Meijdam said.
"The idea is getting towards more of a socialist kind of society although capitalism will not be curtailed at all."
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