Hong Kong media praised the CPPCC "brain bank" and applauded its achievements

The Second Session of the CPPCC (Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference) was in session on Mar.3. The day after its commencement Hong Kong Commercial Daily said the CPPCC was not only an enormous pool of talents, but also a brain-bank which acts as a valuable source of advice for the decision-making of the Chinese central government.

The article holds that the CPPCC is playing an important role in promoting the social, political and economic progress of the nation. Far beyond an admirable honor, the membership of the CPPCC means to shoulder up heavy responsibilities for participating in and devoting to political affairs of the government.

The article pointed out the CPPCC members, enjoying a high prestige among the Chinese people, are mostly leading brains in the industries, professions or areas where they are from. Learned and proficient, rich in experience and unique in vision, they are quite familiar with the real situation of the nation, people, areas and the jobs they are engaged in. So they usually have remarks profound and right to the point on some issues in China.

China experienced take-off and boom in its society and economy since the reform and opening-up strategy was launched. As human resources made up of expertise, talents, vision, experience, and capabilities carry greater weight, CPPCC members, as the cream of China's human capital, are treasured to the greatest ever extent. Many of their proposals for the government policy-making have been adopted and social and economic problems have been solved as a result of their efforts.

The political arena for the CPPCC, the article said, is gradually gathering its importance and every CPPCC member is faced with more new issues, new tasks and higher expectation from the society. For a drastic change is taking place in China's society, politics and economy and China merges into the globalization with a faster pace. Under the circumstance, whether the target of the "political civilization" as set by the CPC at its 16th Party Congress can be fulfilled depends on whether the CPPCC members can keep pace with the time and perform fully their duties. That is to offer assistance to the policy making with their suggestions to make greater contributions to the people.

Focusing on cross-strait relations, Taiwan media follows closely NPC & CPPCC sessions

The Second Session of the 10th NPC (National People's Congress) called into session on Mar. 5 and the Second Session of the 10th CPPCC convened on Mar.3 have attracted widespread attention from the media in Taiwan. They keep a close watch on topics related to the cross-strait relations.

All Taiwan media, especially the websites spare an important column for the news from Chinese mainland. They made heavy reporting campaigns to cover the two sessions.

Taiwan UDN News and Eastern Broadcasting added coverage on the two sessions by their resident correspondents in Beijing, including many articles analyzing the cross-strait relations.

Leading Taiwan media, such as "Central Daily News", "Central News Agency", all made the report on the "opening of the Second session of CPPCC and the report by Jia Qinglin their headlines to draw attention". They will step up their efforts in reporting while the two sessions are in progress.

As a response to the question raised by "CtiTV" from Taiwan, Zhang Guoxiang, spokesman for the second session of CPPCC, said, "As a Chinese, certainly I am quite concerned about the Taiwan issue. The Taiwan issue has a direct bearing on the unification of our motherland, on the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the nation. Chinese people, home or abroad, are all concerned about it."

Zhang expressed no interest in who was going to be elected the "president" of Taiwan. What he really concerned, he declared, was whether the Taiwan authorities would stick to the "one China" principle and whether they would do something substantial for the peace of the Taiwan strait, the development of Taiwan and the unification of China.

(People's Daily March 9, 2004)