CHINA:PREMIER WEN Jiabao gave his annual work report to delegates at China's annual parliament yesterday, flagging a bureaucratic shake-up in the state apparatus and warning that rising prices must be tamed to ensure ordinary people enjoyed a decent standard of living.
"The current price hikes and increasing inflationary pressure are the biggest concern of the people," Mr Wen said in his state-of-the-union-style address to open the National People's Congress. His remarks were greeted by no less than 41 rounds of applause from 2,970 delegates, many of them wearing uniforms and ethnic dress, assembled in the cavernous Great Hall of the People.
Mr Wen, the mild-mannered engineer who is the second most powerful man in China, predicted the Beijing Olympics would be key to the country's development.
"All sons and daughters of the Chinese nation are looking forward to them," Mr Wen said of the games, which start on August 8th. "They will be of great importance in promoting China's economic and social development and increasing friendship and co-operation."
However, the country faced challenges of rising inequality, slower global growth and corruption. He forecast economic growth of 8 per cent this year, which is the same figure as forecast last year, even though it eventually turned out to be 11 per cent. Security around the hall was tight and one lone petitioner distributed leaflets condemning corruption in Shanxi province before she was whisked away by police.
Premier Wen covered a lot of bases in his speech, including a comprehensive defence of the one- child policy, despite speculation of late that Beijing might be planning to abandon the plan in recognition of China's greying population.
"We will adhere to the current policy of family planning, keep the birth rate low, improve the health of newborns and adopt a full range of measures to address the gender imbalance in babies," Mr Wen said.
There was brighter news on pollution, another potentially destabilising issue in China. Energy consumption and pollution fell last year, Mr Wen said. Both chemical oxygen demand, a main index of water pollution, and total emission of sulphur dioxide fell last year. These yardsticks are important in China's data picture.
China closed a number of outdated production facilities and there had been progress in desulphurising projects at coal-fired power plants.
Mr Wen promised concerted efforts to combat heavy polluters and more money for sewage treatment, clean energy, and repairing polluted rivers and lakes.
Beijing would do its best to keep consumer-price inflation at 4.8 per cent this year, the same as in 2007, but Mr Wen acknowledged that inflationary pressures remained "great", fuelled by high international oil and grain costs.
Domestic property prices "rose steeply" and he warned that banks are extending too much credit.
The national parliament, which is basically a rubber stamp legislature but does include interesting insights into China's development, is also expected to discuss a government reorganisation plan intended to cut red-tape and corruption and trim the bureaucracy.
"Oversight mechanisms and checks on government authority are not strong enough," said Mr Wen. There was also the traditional warning against Taiwan trying to declare independence.
Taiwanese go to the polls on March 22nd to elect a president, but Mr Wen insisted China would never abandon its "One China" unification policy.