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members and other senior leaders took part in an irrigation project in Peking. The national press report described General Secretary Jiang Zemin and Premier Li Peng as having worked until their faces were "streaming with sweat", shovelling mud and refusing to take a break when advised to do so.
10. Jiang Zemin went to Anhui Province to see how it was faring after the devastating floods which hit the region during the summer. Vice-Premier Zhu Rongji inspected Jiangsu Province and praised the economic progress it has made since the flooding.
11. While on a six-day tour of Shanghai, Premier Li Peng cut the ribbon for the Nanpu Bridge, the first bridge across the Huangpu River in Shanghai proper. He also visited the Pudong Development Zone and Shanghai's Stock Exchange.
12. A number of leaders headed south in November and December. General Secretary Jiang Zemin and Vice-Premier Tian Jiyun visited the Special Economic Zones of Shantou and Xiamen to mark the 10th anniversary of their founding. Jiang Zemin stressed that the policy of opening up to the outside world will continue. Security Chief Qiao Shi also inspected Guangdong Province, and called for deeper reform in the region.
13. NPC Chairman Wan Li visited Guangxi Autonomous Region, Guangdong Province and Xiamen Special Economic Zone in neighbouring Fujian Province. In reference to the general state of his health, he was described as having "walked with big strides and in high spirits". While on a two-day visit to Shanghai, Wan Li stressed the need to strengthen democracy and the legal system in order to ensure "long-term peace and stability in China".
14.
The leadership's unease over the situation in its minority areas in the wake of recent Soviet events, was expressed during an eight-day inspection tour of the poor south-western Province of Guizhou by General Secretary Jiang Zemin. Jiang said it was crucial to narrow the "considerable gap" in wealth between western parts of China, inhabited largely by minorities, and the more developed areas in the east. He also said officials of all minorities should continue to be educated in the "Marxist concept
of nationalities".
23RD SESSION OF THE NPC STANDING COMMITTEE
15. Wan Li presided over the NPC Standing Committee meeting, which discussed various laws and adopted resolutions on joining the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
FOREIGN RELATIONS
November
16. Former US Secretaries of State, Alexander Haig and George Schultz, both visited China and met with senior leaders, preceding the visit to Peking of Secretary of State James Baker. This was the highest level meeting to to have taken place between the two countries since the Tiananmen crackdown in June 1989. Little
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