Beijing ? Outlining his vision for a richer, stronger, less corrupt China, President Jiang Zemin moved Friday to confirm his place in history at a historic Communist Party congress that will usher in a new generation of leaders.

Jiang, nearing the end of 13 years as party general secretary, said China aimed to quadruple the size of its economy by 2020 and compete harder in international markets.

“People will have more family property and lead a more prosperous life,” Jiang said, speaking before 2,114 delegates amid tight security in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

Despite the talk of capitalist-style prosperity, the meeting was suffused with the classic crimson trappings of communism. Jiang and dozens of senior party members sat on a stage beneath a 20-foot-high hammer-and-sickle symbol flanked by Chinese flags.

A key issue at the meeting is expected to be Jiang’s invitation last year to businesspeople to join the party. The president appears to have fought off opposition from old-style Marxists, and this congress is expected to amend the party constitution to give capitalists a formal role in it.

The change would reflect China’s reality after two decades of economic reform launched by Deng Xiaoping, the late leader who installed Jiang as his successor in 1989.

The party that calls itself the “vanguard of the working class” presides over a growing divide between rich and poor.

“We must move forward or we will fall behind,” Jiang said in a 90-minute address.

Jiang, 76, is expected to step down as party leader within days. Next in line appears to be 59-year-old Vice President Hu Jintao, who also is expected to take over as president when Jiang’s term ends next year.

Hu and other younger leaders seem unlikely to waver from pursuing what the party calls a “socialist market economy.” The hybrid of central planning and private industry has generated sizzling economic growth, but left tens of millions unemployed as state industries shed jobs in order to compete.

Official media tell a more optimistic tale, though.

“Socialist China is glowing with vitality and vigor, the Chinese nation displays a brand-new mental outlook to the world,” the party newspaper, People’s Daily, said in an editorial welcoming the beginning of the congress.

Sheng Kun, 20, a student from Henan province in central China, said the switchover of power was momentous because the “country is changing so fast.”

“Politics have to be more transparent before the economy can prosper,” she said. “It’s gotten a lot better over the years and I hope we can get better.”

In Washington, former U.S. ambassador Winston Lord said Jiang would continue to wield power behind the scenes after he retired and would seek to promote an improved relationship with the United States as part of his legacy.

“Jiang Zemin sees as his legacy a good relationship with the United States,” Lord told a seminar Friday at the Nixon Center, a private research group named for the former president who ended a U.S. diplomatic freeze on mainland China in 1971.

Jiang exhorted delegates Friday to look after the poor, fight crime and clean up corruption that has wrecked public faith in government.

Despite expressing concern for public welfare and talking of “socialist democracy,” Jiang made clear that ordinary Chinese still could expect little voice in their government.

He stressed what he called the “need to uphold the party’s leadership,” and scornfully dismissed Western-style democratic systems.

“We must never copy any models of the political system of the West,” he said.

Few details about the agenda of the congress or pending leadership changes have emerged, though state media have taken a valedictory tone in recent weeks about Jiang and his generation.