China has experienced an extraordinary period over the past five years, when the Communist Party of China guided the people to overcome hardships and attained achievements, the Party's General Secretary Hu Jintao said in his report to the 17th National Congress this morning.

"The five years since the 16th Congress was an extraordinary period," Hu said on behalf of the 16th CPC Central Committee.

In order to accomplish the arduous tasks of reform and development in a complicated and volatile international situation, he said, the Party led the people of all ethnic groups overcome difficulties and risks under the guidance of Deng Xiaoping Theory and the thought of Three Represents, creating a new situation in the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics and attaining a new realm in adapting Marxism to conditions in China.

Hu reviewed that China's economic strength increased substantially, with the GDP expanding by an annual average rate of over 10 percent in the past five years.

Hu said that major breakthroughs were made in reform and opening up, people's living standards improved significantly, with the system of subsistence allowances for urban and rural residents basically in place, which guarantees basic living conditions for the poor.

Fresh progress was registered in improving democracy and the legal system, a new situation was created in cultural development, and social development proceeded in an all-round way, and the new undertaking to build the Party achieved solid progress, Hu said.

During the past five years, historic achievements were made in the development of national defense, and the armed forces were reduced by 200,000 troops, he said.

Meanwhile, Hu stressed that "the achievements still fall short of the expectations of the people and that there are still quite a few difficulties and problems on our way forward."

The outstanding problems and difficulties include:

-- The economic growth is realized at an excessively high cost of resources and the environment.

-- There remains an imbalance in development between urban and rural areas, among regions, and between the economy and society.

-- It has become more difficult to bring about a steady growth of agriculture and continued increase in farmers' incomes.

-- There are still many problems affecting people's immediate interests in areas such as employment, social security, income distribution, education, public health, housing, work safety, administration of justice and public order; and some low-income people lead a rather difficult life.

-- More efforts are needed to promote ideological and ethical progress.

-- The governance capability of the Party falls somewhat short of the need to deal with the new situation and tasks.

-- Some primary Party organizations are weak and lax. A small number of Party cadres are not honest and upright, their formalism and bureaucratism are quite conspicuous, and extravagance, waste, corruption and other undesirable behavior are still serious problems with them.

"We must pay close attention to these problems and continue our efforts to solve them," Hu said.

Per capita GDP to jump fourfold by 2020

Hu said China's per capita GDP is expected o be quadrupled by the year 2020 against 2000.

But the rapid growth will be under the condition of reduced consumption of resources and greater efforts in environment protection, Hu added.

"We will quadruple the per capita GDP of the year 2000 by 2020 through optimizing the economic structure and improving economic returns while reducing consumption of resources and protecting the environment," he said.

This goal is much higher than the target set by the CPC five years ago at the 16th National Congress, which was to quadruple the GDP value, without the mention of per capita, by 2020, observers noted.

Five years ago, the 16th CPC National Congress outlined the task to quadruple GDP of the year 2000 by 2020 through optimizing the economic structures and improving efficiency.

China's GDP has kept growing at a speed of over 10 percent for four consecutive years and topped 20 trillion yuan (US$2.7 trillion) in 2006.

But the fast economic growth has been realized "at an excessively high cost of resources and the environment," Hu acknowledged.

More non-Communists to take leading positions

Hu pledged that the ruling Communist Party of China plans to add more people outside of the Party to leading government positions.

"The Party will "select and recommend a greater number of outstanding non-CPC people for leading positions," Hu said.

Wan Gang, new minister of science and technology, and Chen Zhu, minister of health, have been the first non-Communist cabinet appointments since the late 1970s when China launched its economic reform and opening up.

According to Hu, such a move is part of the Party's efforts to "expand the patriotic united front and unite with all forces that can be united."

"Promoting harmony in relations between political parties, between ethnic groups, between religions, between social strata, and between our compatriots at home and overseas plays an irreplaceable role in enhancing unity and pooling strengths," he said.

Acting on the principle of long-term coexistence, mutual oversight, sincere treatment of each other and the sharing of weal and woe, "we will strengthen our cooperation with the democratic parties, support them and personages without party affiliation in better performing their functions of participation in the deliberation and administration of state affairs and democratic oversight," he said.

Expanding democracy

Hu also pledged to expand the people's democracy and ensure that they are masters of the country.

"People's democracy is the lifeblood of socialism," Hu said.

Saying that the essence and core of socialist democracy -- a goal that the Party has been consistently pursuing -- are that the people are masters of the country, Hu proposed that both urban and rural areas gradually adopt the same ratio of deputies to the represented population in the election of deputies to the people's congresses.

To ensure scientific and democratic decision-making, Hu called for improving the information and intellectual support for it, increasing its transparency and expanding public participation in it. In principle, public hearings must be held for the formulation of laws, regulations and policies that bear closely on the interests of the public.

Hu pointed out that the most effective and extensive way for the people to be masters of the country is that they directly exercise democratic rights in accordance with the law to manage public affairs and public service programs at the primary level, practice self-management, self-service, self-education and self-oversight, and exercise democratic oversight over cadres. Such practices must be emphasized and promoted as the groundwork for developing socialist democracy.

He called on Party organizations at all levels and all Party members to act under the Constitution and laws on their own initiative and take the lead in upholding the authority of the Constitution and laws.

Hu also promised to accelerate the separation of the functions of the government from those of enterprises, state assets management authorities, public institutions and market-based intermediaries, standardize administrative practices, strengthen administrative law-enforcement agencies, reduce the number of matters requiring administrative examination and approval and standardize such procedures, and reduce government intervention in microeconomic operations.

He urged to improve the mechanism of restraint and supervision, stressing that "power must be exercised in the sunshine to ensure that it is exercised correctly". He said organic laws and rules of procedure should be improved to ensure that state organs exercise their powers and perform their functions within their statutory jurisdiction and in accordance with legal procedures.

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 emphasized.

"Democracy will keep developing along with the progress of socialism," said Hu, expressing the belief that in the historical course of developing socialism with Chinese characteristics, Chinese Communists and the Chinese people will surely advance socialist democracy.