Highlights of opening speech at meeting of Chinas top political advisory body

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(3 Mar 2013) • 1. China's outgoing leader Hu Jintao (right) and China's new Communist Party chief Xi Jinping walking to podium • 2. Wide interior of the Great Hall of the People • 3. Close of Chinese emblem • 4. Wide of delegates and screen • 5. Wide of Jia Qinglin, chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) bowing to delegates and walking to podium for speech • 6. Mid of Hu and Xi on stage • 7. SOUNDBITE (Mandarin) Jia Qinglin, chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC): • We should get the CPPCC to better play its role as an important channel for promoting consultative democracy. We should enrich the forms of consultation, improve the consultative system, expand the channels and platforms for the orderly participation of all sectors of society in political affairs, and promote the extensive, multilevel and institutionalised development of consultative democracy. • 8. Mid of delegates • 9. Mid of leaders standing to leave after meeting • 10. Wide of delegates leaving meeting hall • STORYLINE: • Chinese leaders called for greater efforts to promote consultative democracy, as the country's top political advisory body started its annual meeting in Beijing on Sunday. • Delegates arrived in Beijing from across China on Sunday for the opening of the annual Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). • Held in the Great Hall of the People, the CPPCC has largely a ceremonial role in giving guidance to the more powerful National People's Congress (NPC) which opens on Tuesday. • We should enrich the forms of consultation, improve the consultative system, expand the channels and platforms for the orderly participation of all sectors of society in political affairs, and promote the extensive, multilevel and institutionalised development of consultative democracy, said CPPCC chairman, Jia Qinglin to delegates at the meeting. • China faces rising public anger over endemic corruption, a burgeoning wealth divide and the degradation of the country's air, soil and waterways. • Slower economic growth and territorial disputes, especially with Japan, add to the tension. • Jia is one of several outgoing Chinese state leaders, together with President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao. • Present at the meeting on Sunday was new Communist Party chief Xi Jinping. • Tuesday's annual session of the national legislature will complete the once-a-decade handover of power that began in November when Xi and his leadership team assumed the top positions in the Communist Party. • At the end of the session, Xi will take the title of president from his predecessor as party leader, Hu Jintao. • Xi has styled himself as an economic reformer, an iron-fisted graft-buster, a staunch nationalist and a no-frills man-of-the-people - • spurring expectations for change. • But as he prepares to be appointed to the largely ceremonial role of president, pressure will be growing on him to deliver. • Whilst only the NPC votes on new legislation, the CPPCC gets much more coverage from Chinese media due to the presence of famous delegates from several social groups including representatives of ethnic minorities and celebrities. • Founded in 1949 from a coalition of parties who supported the Communist takeover of power, the CPPCC consists of prominent figures of the Chinese society, mostly not members of the ruling communist party. • It is supposed to serve as a kind of think tank for the NPC, which itself rarely shows much dissent when presented by the ruling Communist Party elite with policy documents and new laws for approval. • • • Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork • Twitter: / ap_archive • Facebook: / aparchives • Instagram: / apnews • • • You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...

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