In a speech to lawmakers laden with warnings about the threats to social stability in the world's most populous country, Premier Wen Jiabao heralded steep spending increases, including nearly 40 percent more for health care.

"Maintaining a certain growth rate for the economy is essential for expanding employment for both urban and rural residents, increasing people's incomes and ensuring social stability," Wen told parliament.

"Improving people's lives is always the starting and end point of our economic work," he said in his much-anticipated address, which opened the nine-day annual full session of the legislature.

Among the big-ticket items mentioned by Wen was a rise in spending on social security of 17.6 percent to 293 billion yuan (43 billion dollars), and a whopping 38.2 percent increase in health care spending to 118.1 billion yuan.

The government would also earmark 42 billion yuan for the creation of new jobs, Wen said, addressing an issue of particular salience at a time when an estimated 20 million workers have been made unemployed due to the crisis.

The robust spending plans come at a time when revenues are squeezed by the crisis, showing the importance for the Communist Party-led regime of addressing longtime disparities to soothe the masses, according to observers.

"This spending will improve the quality of life for the people, and it will also enhance the legitimacy of the regime," said Joseph Cheng, a China expert at City University of Hong Kong.

"Moreover, the spending will enable the underprivileged groups to enjoy the benefits of economic growth and serve as a cushion to reduce the grievances with the expanding gap between the rich and poor."

During the 1990s, speedy economic growth was a top policy priority in China, even if it meant growing disparities between rich and poor.

Although Wen and his colleagues have spent the past six years talking about narrowing the gap, the least privileged in Chinese society still face a daily struggle for survival.

"The (current) rural medical insurance only pays for about 30 percent of hospital fees, so the coverage is not so good," Zhou Weidong, a cotton farmer in a poor village in eastern China's Shandong province, told AFP earlier.

"Everyone welcomes improvements to this, but right now for the people who don't have any money, it is like it has always been, you just don't go see the doctor."

Wen, whose public persona exudes empathy with the common man, readily admitted Thursday that his government was a long way away from solving the problems affecting millions of Chinese.

"Some problems affecting the vital interests of the people have not been fundamentally alleviated," Wen said.

"There are still many problems demanding urgent solution in the areas of social security, education, health care, income distribution and public security."

Despite the huge extra spending this year, social tensions are likely to increase, but the communist-led regime is not under threat, according to Cheng of City University.

"My assessment is that the social tension will be higher, but I think the central authorities are quite well-prepared, and therefore the actual danger will not be very great," he said.

"They have substantial fiscal reserves to spend, and the population remains optimistic that they are still able to improve their living standards in the future."

earlier related report
Writers' festival offers insights into modern China
At first glance, a literary festival gathering dozens of writers from around the world may seem out of place in China, where censorship of the local media remains heavy.

But The Bookworm International Literary Festival, now in its fourth year, has proved to be a huge success, providing a platform for a relatively free flow of ideas and offering another example of the complexities of modern China.

"In terms of debate and discussion, I think people are surprised about how much is able to go on here," festival director Jenny Niven told AFP ahead of Friday's start of the two-week event in the Chinese capital.

The festival does not aim to anger the government, rather to offer a chance for cultural exchanges and intellectual debate, according to Niven, who has brought together roughly 50, mostly foreign, writers.

Among them is Englishman Justin Hill, whose prize-winning first novel set in contemporary rural China, "The Drink and Dream Teahouse," was banned by Chinese authorities when it was published abroad in 2003.

Nevertheless, Hill, who lives in Hong Kong and appeared at last year's festival, was upbeat about the level of freedom of expression in China for these types of events.

"My impression is the Chinese government is more tolerant than people assume," he said, although he did express some caution.

"The problem with China is there is an invisible line that you can't cross. The problem is no one really knows where it is and it shifts depending on what is happening in China at the time."

Perhaps offering some extra cover for the festival is that it mainly targets foreigners in China, with all presentations in English.

Indeed, for expatriates the festival -- to be held in Beijing as well as the cities of Chengdu and Suzhou further south -- offers a rare opportunity to meet and listen to some stars of modern literature.

Among the headline names this year is Rabih Alameddine, author of "The Hakawati," meaning "The Storyteller" in Arabic and which The New York Times Book Review hailed as a stunning work offering the Western reader a glimpse of the Arab soul.

One of the most popular writers -- his two sessions have sold out -- is American William Zorzi, a screenwriter for the US television series "The Wire" that brilliantly portrayed gang and police life in modern Baltimore.

Among the Chinese voices at the festival are Mo Yan, author of "Red Sorghum," which was made into a film by acclaimed director Zhang Yimou, and poet Xi Chuan.

Festival director Niven said the event was an extension of a series The Bookworm, a cafe-restaurant-library chain in China, has developed over the past few years and which has brought more than 200 writers to the country.

They have included Hong Kong's last British colonial governor, Chris Patten, influential US columnist Thomas Friedman and Chinese author Ma Jian, who left China after some of his works were banned.

The increasing number of Western writers travelling to China is part of an Asia-wide phenomenon, with literature festivals mushrooming over the past few years since a trend-setting event in Hong Kong in 2000.

Festivals have since been held on the Indonesian island of Bali, the Sri Lankan coastal town of Galle and the eastern Chinese economic hub of Shanghai.

Hill, who is also a contributing editor to the Asian Literary Review, said the rising number of festivals was partly because people in the West and elsewhere around the world wanted to know more about Asia.

"There's a lot more interest in literature about Asia and set in Asia," he said.

However he also put it down to the growing number of Westerners living in the region.

"In Suzhou last year, I was astonished at the number of foreigners there," he said, recalling walking into a bar in the eastern Chinese city on St. Patrick's Day to find it full of expatriates.

Share This Article With Planet Earth

del.icio.us	Digg	Reddit
YahooMyWeb	Google	Facebook

Related Links
The Economy

Memory Foam Mattress Review

SPACE MEDIA NETWORK PROMOTIONS Solar Energy Solutions Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison ... Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News