China eyes narrowing rural-urban wealth gap
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-03-02 19:44

The annual parliamentary sessions open on Sunday with the government expecting to push through steps it hopes will narrow the wealth and development gap between its cities and vast countryside.

Taiwan, will also spring into the spotlight after its leader, Chen Shui-bian, scrapped a council on unification with the mainland, prompting a strong rebuke.

The National People's Congress (NPC) session will also discuss over the aim to build a "new socialist countryside" .

China is worried that gaps in income, health care and schooling between rich urban dwellers and the three-quarters of its 1.3 billion people who live in the countryside could lead to the social instability.

The government is to unveil and formalise a raft of measures to better protect the interests of farmers boost spending on rural health care and schools.

According to an Internet survey by the People's Daily Web site (www.people.com.cn), narrowing the wealth gap and cracking down on corruption were two of the most important topics people were paying attention to at this parliamentary session.  

China aims to raise spending on education from 2.7 percent to 4 percent of GDP as the world's most populous nation focuses on improving rural schooling to stem a gap with rich coastal areas.

China has nine years of compulsory education.

CONDEMN TAIWAN'S CHEN

How the NPC responds to Chen's scrapping of the "National Unification Council" and 15-year-old unification guidelines will be another focus area.

The top legislature passed an Anti-Secession Law last year, aiming to prevent the island formally declaring statehood.

The mainland's most urgent task is to prevent Chen pushing for de jure independence through "constitutional" amendments, the Communist Party's Office for Taiwan Affairs and the cabinet's Taiwan Affairs Office said this week in a joint statement.