1997 "important and extraordinary" year for China - Jiang Zemin

Chinese President Jiang Zemin, in a New Year message, highlighted the handover of Hong Kong and China's economic performance as two of the highlights of 1997, which he called " a very important and extraordinary year in Chinese history" .

In his speech, carried on Wednesday by the Xinhua news agency, Jiang said China had smoothly resumed its sovereignty over Hong Kong and had maintained its prosperity under the "one country, two systems" policy, which he said had allowed Hong Kong a high degree of autonomy.

He said the complete reunification of China was a common aspiration for all Chinese.

Macao would return smoothly to Chinese rule in 1999, Jiang said, also reiterating that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China.

Any attempt to create "two Chinas" or "one China, one Taiwan" and seek "Taiwan independence" were doomed to fail, Jiang said.

"We hope that the Taiwan authorities can put national interests in first place, show sincerity and take concrete steps to promote economic, cultural and personnel exchanges across the Taiwan Straits and help realize the direct mail, shipping and trade between the two sides of the straits," Jiang said.

The Communist Party's 15th Congress, "holding high the banner of Deng Xiaoping Theory, summarized China's history over the past century and worked out the programme for action for the country's development in the next century," Jiang said.

Jiang said China's reform, opening-up and modernization drive had continued to make progress, with high growth and low inflation in 1997, and new achievements being scored in building democracy.

"Generally speaking, we have continued to maintain stability in the overall situation of China's reforms and development." Jiang said the Chinese government was "extremely concerned" at the financial turmoil affecting the region, but that " through the efforts of these countries and regions and relevant international cooperation, the situation will get better step by step", the agency reported.

Jiang said the wealth gap between the North and South continued to widen and that the "World is not tranquil" .

"It is of critical importance for the people across the world to be further united and work together for an early establishment of a new international political and economic order that is just and reasonable," he said, adding that China would continue to play its part in the world arena as a force for world peace and stability.

BBC Monitoring (http://www.monitor.bbc.co.uk), based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.