China parliament to approve reshuffle, streamlining

By Benjamin Kang Lim

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's new parliament is expected to promote younger leaders and possibly a non-Communist and will endorse plans to create powerful "super-ministries" in moves that will further consolidate President Hu Jintao's authority.

On the cusp of a second five years as president and premier, Hu and Wen Jiabao are determined to strengthen the central government's hand to ensure their policies of more balanced growth are carried out in the face of opposition from regional and industrial interests.

"It's centralizing power to facilitate control," Jin Zhong, a Hong Kong-based veteran China watcher, said of the changes expected when the parliament holds its annual meetings from Wednesday.

The National People's Congress, or parliament, takes place at the mid-way point of Hu and Wen's tenure, during which they have sought to moderate the pace of growth with a view to curbing widespread environmental degradation and reviving the lagging hinterland.

It will meet for nearly two weeks and rubber-stamp proposals endorsed by the ruling Communist Party.

The session takes place with inflation at 11-year highs and the stock market down 29 percent from October, leaving financial policy in the world's fourth-largest economy under scrutiny.

Beijing is also scrambling to get ready for the August 8 opening of the Summer Olympics, a coming-out party that has raised pressure on China's rulers to reform.

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