Hu Jintao vowed here Monday morning at his report to the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC ) to deepen political restructuring, mentioning the word of democracy at least 60 times.

Hu told more than 70 million Party members nationwide in his live televised speech that the CPC , an 86-years-old political party ruling New China for over 58 years, will "expand people's democracy and ensure that they are masters of the country."

Although being faced with widening wealth gap, unwise use of natural resources and regional imbalance of economic and social development, China has achieved rarely-seen miracle in economic and social development. China's economy, once on the verge of collapse, has grown to rank as the fourth largest in the world, and its import and export volume, the third biggest. The impoverished population in rural areas has dropped from more than 250 million to just over 20 million.

Economic prosperity and a more open society give people more freedom to enjoy fruits resulting from the reform and opening-up policy. "With more individual freedom, gradual shaping of unique concept of democracy and solid forming of institutional arrangements, China-style democracy is emerging," said Yang Guangbin, professor with the Renmin University of China.

China-style democracy, which was defined by Hu in his speech, combines the Party's leadership, encouragement of people acting as masters, and the rule of law.

Hu said that the CPC will "expand intra-Party democracy to develop people's democracy" by increasing transparency in Party affairs and "opposing and preventing arbitrary decision-making by an individual or a minority of people."

Unprecedentedly, the number of candidates was 15 percent more than the actual delegates to the Party congress. At the previous national congress five years ago, the loss margin of election of delegates was ten percent.

Even bolder steps were strode in the election of grassroots CPC organizations. The CPC has decided to experiment with direct elections of Party chiefs in more than 200 townships in Chongqing, Sichuan and Hubei.

Chen Guohua, a beneficiary of the political tryout who occupies the post of Party chief of Chongqing's Longxing Township, said Party members in his electorate fervently welcome the initiative of the Party central leadership. They particularly cherish the right they are entitled to review Chen's work every year. One- third of non-confidence votes from the total 900 Party members in Longxing may immediately affect his job.

On enhancing intra-Party democracy, Hu Jintao called on the whole Party to "take the lead in upholding the authority of the Constitution and the law," citing that the system for nominating candidates and electoral methods should be improved.

The Party will strictly implement democratic centralism, improve the system that combines collective leadership with division of responsibilities among individuals. Hu said the Party will establish a sound system under which the Political Bureau of the Central Committee regularly reports its work to plenary sessions of the Central Committee and accepts their oversight, and the standing committees of local Party committees at all levels do likewise to plenary sessions of local Party committees and accept their oversight.

At the fourth plenary session of the 16th CPC Central Committee, the Central Committee decided to scatter documents of the Central Committee to all delegates to the 16th CPC National Congress, collecting their advice for improving work of the Central Committee.

Improving intra-Party democracy is the ultimate approach to developing people's democracy and promoting social harmony, said Tian Peiyan, a senior theorist at the CPC Central Committee's Policy Research Office.

Since the 16th CPC National Congress, the framework of intra- Party democracy has been roughly institutionalized, Tian said, adding that under the framework, democratic election, decision- making, governance and supervision should be sped up.

"As an important part of China's overall reform, political restructuring must be constantly deepened along with economic and social development to adapt to the growing enthusiasm of the people for participation in political affairs," Hu said.

(Xinhua News Agency October 16, 2007)