No redistribution, no 'Xiaokang'

BEIJING - China's top leaders will be looking for ways to keep economic growth on a more sustainable path while facing the widening wealth gap as they meet on Friday, at the start of a four-day meeting.

This Fifth Plenary Session of the 17th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) is expected to determine key parts of the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015). President Hu Jintao has said they need to work for "inclusive growth" and encourage consumer demand to support GDP growth as demand abroad falls off.

Analysts say that this isn't an easy call for an economy that has grown fat on the back of cheap labor and ready exports. At the same time, laborers and farmers need higher wages, better welfare, and more affordable housing, and they're placing greater demands on the government to deliver.