China Raises Defense Budget, Promises to Help the Poor

04 March 2011

From left, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, President Hu Jintao and National People's Congress Chairman Wu Bangguo in Beijing's Great Hall of the People, Thursday.

This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.

About three thousand delegates from around China are in Beijing for this year's meeting of the National People's Congress.

The government wants to prevent social problems, and Premier Wen Jiabao says one way to do that is to help the poor.

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Premier Wen recently held a public online chat. He said improving peoples' living conditions will be the starting point for every rule in China's next five-year plan. The plan lists Communist Party goals for twenty eleven through twenty fifteen.

The legislature will give final approval to the plan during its week-long meeting starting Saturday.

Premier Wen suggested that the government also plans to deal with two other problems, corruption and inflation. Inflation in January was just under five percent, but food prices rose more than ten percent.

Huang Jing, a public policy professor at the University of Singapore, says fighting corruption should be a top concern for the government.

Professor Huang says another issue is the growing wealth gap in China. Mr. Huang says China needs political reforms to help spread its wealth from thirty years of economic opening.