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Chinese prime minister Wen pledges more equal society
2008-03-05
Premier Wen Jiabao pledged Wednesday a more equal society and streamlined government for China, as he vowed to address a vast array of problems tarnishing the nation's remarkable modernisation drive. Wen used his annual "state of the nation" speech to parliament to promise reforms that would make life more fair for the country's 1.3 billion people, who have experienced massive changes during three decades of historic reforms. Just months before Beijing hosts the Olympic Games, Wen said inflation, which hit a near 12-year high of 7.1 percent in January, topped the list of national concerns. "We are clearly aware that there are still many problems affecting China's economic and social development and the work of the government," he told the opening session of the rubber-stamp parliament, the National People's Congress. Wen and President Hu Jintao, both aged 65, are set to be given five more years in power at the two-week parliamentary session, while the next generation of leaders are expected to be promoted as their grooming period picks up pace. For China's ruling Communist Party elite, which has maintained power for six decades, its legitimacy rests with its ability to deliver prosperity and a decent life across all sectors of the population. Against this backdrop, Wen said some of the other problems the government needed to address were the environmental consequences of economic growth, food and drug safety, a lack of jobs and an inadequate social safety net. Wen also said the gap between rich and poor was continuing to grow, especially between the fast-developing cities and the rural areas. "We must work harder to resolve them," he said of the problems. Cutting massive bureaucracy in China while pushing ahead with political reforms were two key areas identified by Wen in the government's plans, but he said the Communist Party would not loosen its grip on power. "We will deepen reform of political institutions and advance socialist political standards," he told the 3,000 parliamentary delegates, adding that Chinese-style democracy would be expanded. In regards to government efficiency, Wen announced plans that could lead to the consolidation of the many government departments and ministries. There are currently 28 full-blown ministries, and dozens of other bodies of nearly equal weight, and there has been speculation for months the government intended to collapse many into "super-ministries". "The plan explores ways to establish larger departments that organically integrate the functions of smaller departments," Wen said. More efforts would also be made to curb the seemingly never-ending problem of corruption and abuse of power within communist ranks, according to Wen. "We will attach even greater importance to combatting corruption and encouraging integrity, and fight corruption unequivocally," he said. Among the immediate measures to bring about a more equal society, Wen said education spending would this year rise 45 percent, the health budget would go up 25 percent and funding for social security would jump 19.8 percent. Those rises were larger than the 17.6-percent increase in the military budget the government announced on Tuesday. Among the key specific macro-economic targets, Wen said the government would aim to keep inflation for the year at about 4.8 percent. This was the same rate as 2007, which was an 11-year high and propelled mainly by soaring food costs. Wen said the government intended to slow economic growth to about eight percent in 2008, down from 11.4 percent in 2007. The premier reasserted that a strong defence force was a central plank of China's modernisation, following complaints from the United States about its growing military power. He also repeated warnings to rival Taiwan that any independence push was doomed to fail.
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