China pledges help for rural poor

[T_i_B]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4775350.stm

China's key annual political event has opened, with the government promising to take measures to close the divide between the new rich and numerous poor. Premier Wen Jiabao addressed 3,000 delegates at the National People's Congress in Beijing.

He predicted China's economy would grow by 8% this year and by an average of 7.5% over the next four years. He promised extra money for rural areas and farmers, to spread growing wealth to the impoverished countryside. "Building a 'new socialist countryside' is a major historic task," Mr Wen told the conference.

He said the government plans to spend 340bn yuan ($42bn; £24bn) this year upgrading agriculture, and billions more on rural social services.

The government is concerned about growing rural unrest as the hundreds of millions of rural poor are left behind by China's surging urban economy.

[Dirty Hippie]

1. Lord knows they need it

When I traveled by train through southern rural China the poverty was shocking.

I noticed several pieced together, leaning tool sheds in the middle of the fields.

Then I noticed these "tool sheds" had clothes lines beside them.

[w4rma]

2. That's extremely good news. I hope they are really taking action.

In China your National ID card denotes whether you are a rural citizen or an urban one. The rural citizens are destitute and are China's source of cheap, practically slave, labor. The urban citizens have a lifestyle similar to ours in the U.S.