Foreign journalists focus on policy changes
By Qin Jize (Chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2006-03-05 21:55

Foreign journalists reporting the National People's Congress have seen their experience this month as a way to learn more about China's efforts to develop the countryside and narrow the widening gap between the rich and the poor.

They have always been focusing on policy changes on closing the divide between the country's rich cities and backward villages, but many say there is still plenty of room for improvement.

"It is great to divert government investment, education, health care and bank loans to the countryside, " said Allen Cheng, a reporter for the US-based Bloomberg News said Sunday after hearing Premier Wen Jiabao's government work report, in which China vowed to build a new socialist countryside.

"However, how these guiding policies will be implemented at grassroots level, is still a difficult job," according to Cheng..

As an overseas Chinese, Cheng said he had always followed social problems that have cropped up in the course of rapid economic development in China, especially in the rural areas.

He raised a question about the land ownership to Wen during the premier's press conference at the end of last year's NPC session.

Cheng said the government has been promised to focus on bringing prosperity to the countryside, home to 900 million people. However, there is still a lot to do.

As more than 600 overseas journalists from 35 countries and regions have registered for the coverage of this year's plenary sessions of China's top legislature and advisory body, Cheng's idea is shared by many of his overseas counterparts.

Cai Zhenfeng, a reporter for Straits Times in Singapore said that how to properly handle the issues of farmers and land in the rural areas is very critical, as few protests against corruption and inequality have occurred in rural areas in recent years.

To Cai's concern, a senior official with the Communist Party of China said that the nation has attached close importance to this issue and is looking for ways to tackle the problem last Thursday.

Ouyang Song, deputy director of the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee said China is in a process to develop its per capita GDP from US$1,000 to US$3,000, a golden period for development as well as a time for conflicts.
Cai said that is why he, as a foreign journalist, is so interested in China's shifting of the government's investment priority  from infrastructure to the countryside.

"I am wondering about the exact amount of the investment. Will this policy change bring cities and industries any pain?" Cai said.

Besides kids education and rural development, Mayumi Otani from Japan's Mainichi Newspaper said she wanted to bring something useful to her readers back in Tokyo.

"My focus is on the resources conservancy and energy-saving," said Otani, who has been in China for two years, adding Japanese companies are looking for co-operation with Chinese partners in this regard.

"I hope my reports will help to expand Sino-Japanese co-operation in energy-saving," she said with a smile.

Reporters from different countries have different interests. Russian reporter Alexey Novosti expressed interest in the government's effort to protect the environment after a major pollution incident took place in Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province that brought harm to the Russian people downstream.

"I am very pleased that China is accelerating the development of an environment-friendly society and putting emphasis on preventing and treating pollution in the watershed of the Songhua river," he said.

Novosti, working for RIA Novosti, has covered the NPC twice. Last year, his focus fell on the anti-secession law.

"The peace and stability across the Taiwan Straits continues to be our hot topic," he said as Taiwan leader Chen Shui-bian decided days ago that the "National Unification Council" would cease to function and the "Guidelines for National Unification" cease to apply.

Other hot topics for the overseas reporters include national defences, military expense and the Eleventh Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development.

"I will study the plan carefully in order to tell my people back in Scotland what China is up to in the coming five years," said Benjamin Roberson, a reporter for Scotsman.

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