President Hu Jintao warned China's incoming leaders on Thursday that corruption threatened the ruling Communist Party and the state
and played down suggestions of political or economic reform.
In a state-of-the-nation address to more than 2,000 hand-picked party delegates before he hands over power, Hu acknowledged that public anger over graft and issues like environmental degradation had undermined the party's support and led to surging numbers of protests.
"Combating corruption and promoting political integrity, which is a major political issue of great concern to the people, is a clear-cut and long-term political commitment of the party," Hu said.
"If we fail to handle this issue well, it could prove fatal to the party, and even cause the collapse of the party and the fall of the state. We must thus make unremitting efforts to combat corruption."
He promised political reform, but only to a degree, saying: "We will never copy a Western political system."
"We will neither walk on the closed and rigid road, nor will we walk down the evil road of changing (our) flags and banners," Hu said.
He also stressed the need to strengthen the armed forces and protect sea territory amid disputes with Japan and Southeast Asian nations.
Hu was opening a week-long congress at Beijing's Great Hall of the People that will usher in a once-in-a-decade leadership change in the world's second-largest economy.
The run-up to the carefully choreographed meeting, at which Hu will hand over his post as party chief to anointed successor Vice President Xi Jinping, has been overshadowed by a corruption scandal involving one-time high-flying politician Bo Xilai.
The party has accused him of taking bribes and abusing his power to cover up his wife's murder of a British businessman in the southwestern city of Chongqing, which he used to run.
While Hu did not name Bo - a man once considered a contender for top office himself - he left little doubt about the target.
Security was especially tight on Thursday around the Great Hall and Tiananmen Square next door, the scene of pro-democracy protests in 1989 that were crushed by the military.
Police dragged away a screaming protester as the Chinese national flag was raised at dawn.
The party, which came to power in 1949 after a long and bloody civil war, has in recent years tied its legitimacy to economic growth and lifting hundreds of millions out of poverty.
Hu said China's development should be "much more balanced, coordinated and sustainable", and it should double its 2010 GDP and per capita income by 2020, as previous targets have implied.
