The final meeting was attended by 2,789 of the 2,989 NPC deputies. The meeting endorsed amendments to the Law on Chinese-Foreign Equity Joint Ventures, showing China’s determination and actual move in accelerating its pace in opening to the outside world and observing international practices.

It approved the Outline of the 10th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development and Premier Zhu Rongji’s report on the outline, which, deputies considered as a plan fully reflecting the fundamental interests, wills and aspirations of the Chinese people.

Other three reports submitted to the NPC meeting were those of NPC Standing Committee, the Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, which were also passed.

Both the supreme court and procuratorate pledged to strengthen their efforts to fight against corruption and other crimes to create a sound climate for the economic and social development. They promised to continue the effort in building a clean and highly efficient judicial system.

The Supreme People’s Court report was passed by a vote of 1,953 to 530, with 306 abstentions, and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate report 1,873 to 584, with 332 abstentions.

“This shows that people are still not satisfactory with the judicial bodies and our government work,” said Premier Zhu Rongji at a press conference held after the meeting. “Yet, it does not show that our people are losing confidence in our work. Instead, it sounds an alarm for us to step up cracking down on crimes and wiping out corruption”

“Although our judicial bodies made noticeable achievements last year, there are still shortcomings in their work, including “black sheep” in the judicial bodies who seriously impaired the law enforcement and winked at unlawful activities,” said Chen Guizun, member of the NPC Standing Committee and vice-chairman of the Standing Committee of Jiangxi People’s Congress. He said that it is urgent for the judicial bodies to improve their work and make themselves clean. Jiang Jianguo, a deputy from central China’s Hunan Province, said that this shows the Chinese people’s hope for a more efficient and competent judicial body.

The top legislature went through a report on the implementation of the 2000 plan for national economic and social development and a draft plan for this year, with 2,657 deputies voting in favor of it. Also during the meeting, the report on the implementation of the central and local budgets for 2000 and the fiscal plans for this year garnered 2,237 affirmative votes.

(CIIC by Guo Xiaohong 03/15/2001)