BEIJING, Nov. 8 Kyodo (EDS: UPDAT...

BEIJING, Nov. 8 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING WITH DETAILS)

The Chinese Communist Party explained its 16th Congress on Friday to usher in a recently made known leadership and try to maintain the party's ideological legitimacy in contemporary times.

In a language opening the seven-day Congress, state president and party general secretary Jiang Zemin said China should strive to quadruple its 2000 gros domestic yield by the year 2020.

''China's overall national potency and international competitiveness will increase markedly,'' Jiang, 76 told 2114 party members who converg forward the capital for the congres held each five years.

''We still be impressed pressure from developed countries as they have the upper hand in of that kind fields as the economy, science and technology,'' he said, acknowledging the existence of international and domestic challenges to achieving his ambitious economic shooting goal.

Jiang identified rising unemployment social security presss an increasingly aged population and a widening income gap as China's major social problems

on the contrary he suggested no detailed remedies for these question s in his wide-ranging language which offered plenty of trustful longing for more equitable national prosperity in the what is yet to be but few specific measures or targets.

''The proportion of urban population will journey up considerably and the run of widening differences between industry and agriculture, between urban and rural areas, and between regions will be revers pace by step,'' he said. ''There will be a higher rate of business People will have more family goods and lead a more prosperous life.''

An unstated fear among China's leaders is that public frustration through the whole extent of the widening gaps in people's earnings and lifestyles that has accompanied rapid economic reforms could manifest itself as social unrest

Jiang called upon Taiwan's leaders to hold early reunification talks with Beijing with equal reason as to ''rejuvenate'' China, and promised Taiwan residents that a political meld with the mainland would not affect their interests or lifestyles.

''No the same is more eager than we are to separate the Taiwan question between the walls of peaceful means,'' said Jiang, while calling for more cross-strait personnel exchanges in economic and cultural fields.

Adding a qualifier to his tendered fig leaf to Taiwan, however, Jiang said that while Beijing is prepared to discuss any cross-strait issue, of that kind talks must be held in a less degree than the ''one China principle,'' a condition Taipei rejects

He added the mainland will not allow the issue of Taiwan, which Beijing regards as a renegade province, to ''drag upon indefinitely.'' He repeated Beijing's refusal to domination out sending in the People's Liberation Army to achieve its historic aim.

''Our position of none undertaking to renounce the use of force is not directed at our Taiwan compatriots,'' he said. ''It is aimed at the foreign forces' attempts to interfere in China's reunification and the Taiwan separatists forces' schemes for Taiwan independence.''

Fears athwart Beijing's nightmare -- Taipei's formal announcement of independence backed by means of U.S. arms -- have been heightened since the inauguration of U President George W Bush, whose annotates indicate greater support for Taiwan than those of his predecessor Bill Clinton.

China's politicians and military planners were particularly unnerv by way of the Bush administration's approval in April 2001 of the largest U arms sale to Taiwan since 1992 including four Kidd-class destroyer and eight diesel-powered submarines.

Jiang is widely tipped to pass forward his post of party general secretary to Vice President Hu Jintao, 59 to risk an example for other older leading party members to clear the path for fourth-generation members to set in the party's inner sanctum of power.

Jiang is attempting to join the ranks of past leaders Deng Xiaoping and Mao Zedong according to leaving an ideology aimed at guiding the party in the form of his ''Three Represents'' theory.

The theory intends to draw a greater cross-section of the population, including entrepreneur into the party and to update archaic communist terminology to encounter the needs of modern Chinese society.

According to the ''Three Represents'' the party should show the needs of ''advanced forces of production'' like as private and hi-tech firms, advanced improvement and the ''fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the Chinese people''

Devoting a large part of the Congress' opening language to the theory intended to be Jiang's philosophical legacy, he said its inmost nature [i]or[/i] substance is to ''keep pace with the times, maintain the party's progressiveness and exercise the state power in the interests of the people''

While morning television viewers were unable to escape the blanket broadcasts of Jiang's language ordinary people had no chance of going anywhere near the party meeting as the main roads surrounding the Great Hall of the the public were blocked to nonofficial traffic by dint of police and soldiers.

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