Following are some quotable quotes about the imminent annual full sessions of
China's top legislature,the National People's Congress (NPC), and top advisory
body, the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative
Conference (CPPCC), slated to begin in Beijing this week:
"It is almost beyond expectation that I will report the top legislature
convention of the world's most populous nation."
-- Antonio, a Beijing-based correspondent of the Spanish news agency EFE on
his latest assignment to cover this year's NPC, CPPCC sessions.
"Everybody longs for peace and stability but activities of the force for
'Taiwan independence' threatened regional peace and stability."
"The allegation that the anti-secession law will damage cross-Straits
relations is groundless."
-- Wu Jianmin, spokesman for the CPPCC annual session, on the proposed
anti-secession law to be deliberated at the NPC session.
"I haven't had any steady income since the company I worked fordeclared
bankruptcy in 2000. My wife now makes only about 300 yuan(36 US dollars) a month
selling newspapers."
-- Li Shujun, a 45-year-old laid-off worker in Shenyang, capital of northeast
China's Liaoning Province, on the reason thathe hoped discussions at the NPC and
CPPCC sessions would focus more on the unemployment issue.
"Millions of new illiterates will emerge in a dozen years to come if the
existing inequality in education is not addressed."
-- Hou Zixin, a lawmaker of the NPC and also president of the Tianjin-based
prestigious Nankai University, warned against the poor situation of rural
compulsory education which compelled many country kids to drop out of the
schools. Hou planned to submit motions to the NPC session on amending laws on
education and compulsory education.
"Some messages on the Internet are sent by those with ulterior motives, and
vicious attacks by hackers or computer viruses still exist in Chinese
cyberspace."
-- Qin Yue, deputy director of the Public Information and Internet Security
Supervision Bureau under the Ministry of Public Security, on why it's necessary
to exert a 24-hour supervision over the chatrooms and forums of major Chinese
Internet portals during the upcoming NPC and CPPCC sessions. China has the
world's second largest Internet population of 94 million.