CHINA OMITS KEY REFORM FROM PARLIAMENTARY AGENDA
Hardliners have blocked debate on a key
economic reform in China's parliament, a clear challenge to
reformers among the leadership, western diplomats said.
    The annual session of the National People's Congress next
week was to have discussed a draft law which would bolster the
independence of factory chiefs while eroding the power of local
Communist Party officials.
    The decision not to include the draft law was announced by
the congress's standing committee, the People's Daily said. The
committee's chairman is Peng Zhen, considered one of the more
conservative figures in the Chinese leadership.
    The "factory director responsibility system" covered by the
draft law has already been experimentally introduced in state
firms over the last three years, giving managers greater
freedom from the control of factory party committees.
    Diplomats said the agenda decision appeared to contradict
assurances by top leader Deng Xiaoping that reforms were not
threatened by the current campaign against "bourgeois
liberalisation," or western political ideas.
    Earlier this week Deng raised expectations for the session
by saying plans to reform China's political structure would be
unveiled in 1987, diplomats said.
 REUTER
