Hu Jintao gave a wide-ranging speech that appealed to the interests of Chinese from all walks of life when he addressed the opening of the Communist Party of China (CPC) national congress on Monday.
"Our country's per capita gross domestic product will quadruple in 2020 as against 2000, " said 75-year-old Zhu guizhong, a Shanghai resident who learned the target from Hu's keynote speech at the 17th National Congress.
"In 13 years, I will be 88 years old. I believe I can live to that age and live as well as the young," Zhu said with a smile.
Tens of thousands of Chinese were estimated to have listened to the address of Hu, general secretary of the 16th CPC Central Committee through TV, radio or Internet. The speech outlined the country's ambitious goals for economic, political and social developments.
"This is the first time we have seen the five-yearly Party congress on television," said Wu Taike, 56, in remote Gaopai village in eastern Jiangxi province.
Wu said the village had no electricity in 2002 during the 16th national congress of the CPC. The "electricity for every village" project ended the era of oil lamps and candles at the beginning of this year.
"Hu's speech said the country will strengthen the support for farmers and pour more investment into the agricultural sector, which made me pretty excited and encouraged," said Xie Liping, 39, a Party member in the village.
Migrant workers in Chinese cities welcomed more polices to benefit them.
In a Party school classroom in Shanghai, more than 50 migrant workers watched the opening ceremony broadcast live nationwide.
"It is really a good piece of news when when Hu said more efforts would be made to enrich the spiritual and cultural life in the countryside, remote areas and among the migrant workers," said Liu Haijun from central Hubei province, now a staff member of a catering company in Shanghai.
Chinese college students also expressed optimism for their future as Hu has pledged in his speech to promote employment.
"The speech mentioned the strategy to expand employment, especially for college graduates, which is the biggest concern for me and my classmates," said Li Jian, a junior majoring in life science at Lanzhou University in northwest China's Gansu province.
"Employment is the core of people's livelihoods. I hope that the Party and our country can create a more favorable employment environment so as to let every one of us make use of what we have mastered," Li said.
Pan Yue, vice director of the State Environmental Protection Administration and a delegate to the Party congress, said he noticed that Hu had ranked the promotion of a conservation culture as one of "the new and higher requirements" in building a moderately prosperous society, and that every organization and family would be involved in the drive.
"It fully reflects the importance of conservation culture to the Chinese nation," Pan said.
Hu said in his speech the country would "promote a conservation culture by basically forming an energy and resource-efficient and environment-friendly structure of industries, pattern of growth and mode of consumption".
(Xinhua News Agency October 15, 2007)
