China to open annual parliament session

China opens its last parliamentary session under the current leadership Monday, with the Communist Party set to focus on economic growth and social stability ahead of a key power transition this year. The 10-day gathering of the National People's Congress (NPC) in Beijing's Great Hall of the People begins with a "state of the nation" speech from Premier Wen Jiabao, who will outline the government's priorities for 2012. This NPC is the last before a leadership change that begins in the autumn and senior leaders are anxious to ensure the world's second-largest economy grows at a fast pace and keeps a lid on social unrest. Wen is expected to set China's economic growth rate target at 7.5 percent this year, below the eight percent of 2011, in an acknowledgement that the country is slowing due to overseas turmoil and domestic tightening measures. China typically exceeds the annual growth target unveiled every March at the parliament session, and most economists are predicting gross domestic product growth of 8.0-8.5 percent for China this year. "A slightly lower GDP growth target rate is sensible given the fall in the level of potential GDP growth," Goldman Sachs said in a research report. "It can also be viewed as a gesture from the central government that local governments should not focus solely on the pace of GDP growth." Wen is also expected to set an inflation target of less than 4.0 percent this year at the congress, Capital Economics analyst Mark Williams said, amid worries rising prices could trigger social unrest. For all of 2011, China's consumer price inflation was 5.4 percent, official figures showed, well above the government's full-year target of 4.0 percent and higher than the 2010 rate of 3.3 percent. A looming labour shortage in the country of 1.3 billion people is also expected to be high on the agenda at the meeting attended by about 3,000 delegates from across China, as rising costs deter rural dwellers from moving to cities. "The biggest challenge in China now is the social challenge -- balancing between rich and poor, rural and urban -- and the government at the NPC will be looking closely at this," Shi Yinhong, politics professor at Beijing's Renmin University, told AFP. Wen is also likely to raise the importance of social stability in his opening remarks, in a nod to the growing resentment against Beijing's rule in Tibetan-inhabited areas and in the restive northwestern region of Xinjiang, home to the mainly Muslim Uighurs. Twenty people were killed last Tuesday when a group armed with knives attacked a market in Xinjiang, the latest outbreak of violence in the ethnically divided region. During the meeting, which ends March 14, the rubber-stamp legislature is also expected to approve proposed changes to the country's Criminal Procedure Law, which activists fear will legalise secret detentions. President Hu Jintao, Premier Wen Jiabao and five other leaders are due to relinquish their powerful positions in the Politburo Standing Committee this autumn at a congress that will also announce their replacements.