China's top legislator said recently that China must follow the scientific concept of development, which has been endorsed by the central authorities as the new guideline for the country's social and economic development.

"It is important to earnestly implement the scientific concept of development,'' Wu Bangguo, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, said during an inspection tour in the Three Gorges Reservoir area on April 8-13.

The concept calls for setting all-round human development as China's target in economic and social development, and to strive to safeguard the economic, political and cultural rights and interests of the general public, said Wu.

(China Daily April 15, 2004)