China Premier Admits Inequality

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's tone was optimistic as he kicked off this year's parliamentary session, but a heavy police presence outside and special mentions of policies aimed to help the country's poor acknowledged uneasiness about potential unrest. Building a fairer society has been a major goal of Wen's, but the income gap has widened nonetheless. "We are keenly aware that we will have a serious problem in that our development is not yet well balanced, coordinated or sustainable," Wen said. But for the country as a whole, Wen said the next five years should be ones of robust growth, and announced a series of economic targets he plans to meet over the coming year: 4 percent inflation, 8 percent growth, generating new sources of domestic demand, lowering home prices. Inflation has been running near a two-year high of more than 5 percent, and China has easily surpassed 8 percent growth in recent years.