CPPCC Holds Press Conference in Beijing

 The fourth session of the 11th National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) held its first press conference on March 2, 2011 at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Zhao Qizheng, spokesman of the session, provided information about the session and answered questions from the media.

 The Fourth Session of the 11th National Committee of the CPPCC will open on March 3. A work report by the Standing Committee of the CPPCC National Committee and a report on the proposals raised since the third session will be deliberated. The government work report and the draft of the 12th Five-year Plan (2011-2015) on the country’s economic and social development will also be heard and discussed.

 When mentioning about the disclosure of government officials’ assets, Zhao said that the disclosure of officials' assets takes time as China has nearly 10 million civil servants and more working in government-affiliated institutions.

Currently, government officials are required to report not only about their income, family property and investment, but also about whether their spouses or children live abroad, to the departments or institutions they work in, he said. “Many things have to be done, step by step, before the definition of assets is made clear,” he said. Members of the CPPCC would do more research and make proposals to help improve the current regulation governing the disclosure of government officials’ asset, Zhao said.

 According to Zhao, China has become increasingly aware of food safety issues, as indicated by the stricter penalty meted out for offenders in food-related crimes. The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s top legislature, passed an amendment to the Criminal Law on Feb. 25 at its bi-monthly session. The newly revised Criminal Law imposes harsher punishments on offenders in food safety crimes. The law, for the first time, stipulates that criminals may face capital punishment if they commit food crimes which have resulted in people’s death or led to severe consequences. To ensure food safety, Zhao called on health and quality supervision authorities to strengthen monitoring work and urged the media to play their watchdog role.

 Zhao also emphasized that China should be cautious about "Internet mercenaries," the people posting comments online to manipulate public opinion. The influence of public opinion via the Internet is getting stronger as more and more people use the channel to exchange views and participate in political issues, Zhao said, noting that China had 457 million Internet users by the end of last year.

"We feel that Internet culture and environment is getting more complicated and there has emerged a group of people called 'Internet mercenaries," he said. Some of them, backed by institutions for certain purposes, disguise them as ordinary netizens and post comments in order to affect and divert public opinion, or even disturb government policy-making, he said. It needs attention and alert from the government, and China lacks legislation in this regard, Zhao said.