At an open group discussion yesterday afternoon by delegates from east China's Jiangsu Province in the Great Hall of the People, venue of the ongoing 17th Party Congress in Beijing, Li Yuanchao, the province's Party chief, was put in the spotlight.

During half an hour's press time, reporters, especially from overseas media, targeted Li for various questions.

When asked whether Jiangsu will take the lead in political reforms since the province leads the country in economic and social development, Li said, "Our political reforms are steadily moving forward." He said, the Party will not only weigh the views of Party members, but also value the views of the non-communist parties as well as the voices of communities. The government should conscientiously accept supervision by the congress, public consensus and media, he added.

Mentioning supervision from the media, Li turned his eyes to Luo Zhijun, Secretary of the Party committee of Nanjing, capital city of Jiangsu. He said that the local newspapers in Nanjing are very powerful.

According to Li, China has seen continuous development of inner-party democracy and the 17th Party Congress will put it further forward. For example, he said, the report to the congress had been discussed in a much wider scope during its drafting process as compared with previous ones.

But he didn't give a direct answer to the question concerning the ratio for the coming competitive election of the CPC Central Committee members. “Democracy will definitely be expanded within the Party. But the ratio issue has to go through the discussion of the Presidium, and then be submitted to the congress for approval. It's illegal for me to say anything about it now."

In response to a Hong Kong reporter's question why a photo of him together with Rupert Murdoch was selected for the cover of an album about Jiangsu, Li said frankly, "This is an album produced by the local information department; I do not know why they used this picture. I meet with hundreds of foreign guests every year. The reason probably is that they thought you reporters might be more familiar with Murdoch."

(China.org.cn by Wang Zhiyong, October 16, 2007)