WORLD : China Affirms Communist Stand : Chinese Premier Vows to Keep Communist Grip on His Nation

mier Li Peng, opening the Chinese legislature’s first session since last year’s violent suppression of the pro-democracy movement, declared today the nation’s Communist Party will never relax its grip on power and warned further dissent would be crushed.

In a hard-line keynote address to the National People’s Congress, the rubber-stamp legislature, Li also called for renewed emphasis on Marxism but said the government would ease an economic austerity program to avoid a deep recession.

“Upholding socialism is inseparable from upholding leadership by the Communist Party,” Li told 2,705 delegates at the opening of the annual two-week parliament session.

Li expressed “concern” over reforms in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe and suggested they are destabilizing. “Diverse forces in the world are realigning and regrouping . . . bringing greater unrest and turbulence,” he said, but added: “Come what may, socialist China will stand rock firm in the East.”