The 16th National Congress of the CPC

The 16th National Congress of the CPC——中共十六大

The 16th National Congress of the CPC was held in Beijing on November 8-14, 2002.

2,114 full delegates and 40 special delegates attended the congress, representing more than 66 million Party members. On behalf of the 15th Central Committee, Jiang Zemin delivered a speech entitled “Build a Moderately Prosperous Society in All Respects and Initiate a New Phase in Social- ism with Chinese Characteristics” to the congress.

The congress summarized the experience since the Fourth Plenary Session of the 13th CPC Central Committee; expounded the historical position, important role and fundamental requirements of comprehensively implementing the Important Thought of “Three Represents”; emphasized that the first 20 years in the 21st century would be a period of important strategic opportunities which must be seized; proposed the objective of building a moderately affluent society benefiting over one billion people; made comprehensive arrangements for economic, political, cultural construction and reform in accordance with the goal; and raised new requirements for strengthening Party leadership and development. The congress passed an Amendment to the Constitution of the Communist Party of China, making the Important Thought of “Three Represents” part of the guiding ideology of the Party, and incorporated the goal of compre hensively building a moderately prosperous society into the Party Constitution.

The Central Committee, consisting of 198 members and 158 alternate members, and the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, comprising 121 members, were elected at the congress. Subsequently, the Political Bureau of the Central Committee and its Standing Committee were elected in the First Plenary Session of the 16th CPC Central Committee; Hu Jintao was elected general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, Jiang Zemin was made chairman of the Central Military Commission, and Wu Guanzheng was approved as secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.

The 16th National Congress was the first National Congress held by the CPC in the new century, and an important meeting as China entered into a new stage of building a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way and implementing the “Three Steps” development strategy of socialist modernization.