The 16th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) concluded its 6th plenary session Wednesday and issued a communique highlighting the issue of social harmony.

Communique of the Sixth Plenum of the 16th CPC Central Committee

It also set the date and venue for the Party's 17th national congress in the second half of 2007 in Beijing.

The 4-day plenum, in which General Secretary Hu Jintao made a keynote speech, advocated putting the construction of a socialist harmonious society at a "more prominent position" on its work agenda while adhering to economic development as its central task, the communique said.

The plenary meeting, attended by 195 CPC Central Committee members and 152 alternate members, is the first of its kind that the Party has ever held focusing on social development matters other than political and economic affairs.

"There are quite many contradictions and issues that impair social harmony" even when China is "a harmonious society in general," the document admitted.

According to the communique, the Party will in the next 15 years commit itself to improving democratic legal system and human rights protection, narrowing wealth gap, increasing employment, improving public service of the government, promoting people's moral standards, securing public order and protecting the environment.

To achieve these goals, the plenum stressed that more efforts shall be made to coordinate economic and social development, promote social equity and justice, form a set of common aspirations, ideals and moral codes for the whole society, strengthen social affairs management and services, and create harmonious social relations for the unity of all the Chinese people.

While calling for efforts to promote economic growth, the Party also stressed the importance of erecting a new set of common values in the market economy-based society in the making.

"(Constructing) a socialist core value system will be essential to cultural harmony in the country," the communique said. It called on the whole Party to work for cultural harmony and consolidate the ideological and ethical foundations for social harmony by "erecting the socialist core value system and the socialist concept of honors and disgraces."

The plenum also stressed that the role of the CPC itself is crucial for the construction of a harmonious society. Local Party committees around the country should "sharpen political sensitivity, strengthening investigation and research into major social issues" for the effectiveness of their policies, and "properly handle prominent contradictions and issues that affect social harmony in their localities," it said.

The communique urged Party members to strengthen ideological and moral cultivation. It also called for efforts to improve the anti-corruption mechanism and enhance supervision over leading officials and organizations.

"Sound ethos within the Party should be cultivated to bring along healthy ethos among the general public and government officials, so as to create harmonious relations between the Party and the masses," it said.

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