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China’s Wen Warns of Inequality and Vows to Continue Military Buildup (The New York Times)
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China’s Wen Warns of Inequality and Vows to Continue Military Buildup (The New York Times)By ANDREW JACOBS and CHRIS BUCKLEY Published: March 4, 2013 http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/05/world/asia/on-eve-of-chinas-party-congress-vows-of-change.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 BEIJING — Prime Minister Wen Jiabao of China entered his final days in power on Tuesday with a warning that the nation remained troubled by divisions between the urban rich and rural poor and unbalanced economic growth, and he vowed that the government would continue building up its military, which received a 10.7 percent increase in spending for 2013. Mr. Wen delivered his sometimes gloomy assessment of the state of Chinese society in his final annual work report to the national legislature, the National People’s Congress, which will elect a new prime minister and government leadership at the end of the annual meeting. Since Mr. Wen and President Hu Jintao took office, they have repeatedly pledged to narrow income inequality and spread China’s expanding wealth more evenly. But in his state of the nation report, Mr. Wen gave his administration mixed marks and detailed some of the problems that will be bequeathed to the new leadership under Xi Jinping, the incoming president, and Li Keqiang, who will succeed Mr. Wen as prime minister. Mr. Xi already succeeded Mr. Hu as Communist Party secretary in November. “We are keenly aware that we still face many difficulties and problems in our economic and social development,” Mr. Wen said in the report, which was distributed to reporters before he read it to nearly 3,000 congress delegates in the Great Hall of the People. He singled out as particular ills “unbalanced” economic development, income disparity, and inequalities dividing urban and rural residents. “Social strains are clearly increasing,” he said. But even as the Communist Party has said it wants to focus on curing domestic ills, it has backed rapid military modernization, and a budget report released at the same time as Mr. Wen’s speech showed the expansion will continue. China’s official defense budget this year will grow to 720 billion renminbi, or about $116 billion, a rise of 10.7 percent over last year, according to a Ministry of Finance report. By comparison, the nation’s defense budget was just $20 billion in 2002. “We should accelerate modernization of national defense and the armed forces so as to strengthen China’s defense and military capabilities,” Mr. Wen said. “We should resolutely uphold China’s sovereignty, security and territorial integrity, and ensure its peaceful development.” The government will also increase spending on public security. According to the Ministry of Finance report, combined spending by central and local governments, including the People’s Armed Police, courts, jails and other areas of domestic security, will rise by 8.7 percent to 769 billion renminbi, or $123.5 billion. The government also announced major increases in spending on social welfare and health care. The prime minister’s report, broadcast live on national television, is a highlight of two weeks of tightly controlled political theater that rarely strays from a stolid procession of speeches, news conferences and invariably pro-government votes — all of it intended to give a united and untroubled public face to a reliably secretive party leadership. Last year, however, the script was challenged by a divisive scandal surrounding Bo Xilai, the combative party chief of Chongqing, whose fall unleashed months of revelations about murder, corruption and political infighting. Mr. Bo pilloried his foes during a news conference at the congress, was publicly censured by Prime Minister Wen Jiabao at the end of the meeting and then, a day after the congress ended, was dismissed from his Chongqing post. Most analysts agree that the proceedings this year will ignore the plight of Mr. Bo, who is being detained awaiting prosecution on charges of corruption, abuse of power and obstruction of justice. This year, the party’s new top leaders, Mr. Xi and Mr. Li, have paved the way for the 13-day session with vows to end flagrant privileges and self-enrichment by officials and their families. They have also vowed to create a more efficient government, and reduce the acrid smog that has enveloped Beijing and other northern Chinese cities for weeks this winter. “They’ve already taken many steps that have raised hopes among ordinary people — now we’re looking for signs that the hopes can be satisfied,” said Deng Yuwen, an editor for The Study Times, a weekly newspaper published by the Central Party School in Beijing. “The congress won’t have any breakthroughs, but it can indicate where and how fast the leaders want to take things.” This congress will be the last for Mr. Hu and Mr. Wen, who both retire at its end after a decade in their jobs. On the final day of the congress, delegates will vote in a new government leadership dominated by Mr. Xi as president and Mr. Li as prime minister. The transfer of party leadership posts took place in November. The nearly 3,000 congress delegates at the annual gathering are selected through a process that rewards loyalists; about 70 percent of the delegates are Communist Party members, and many are officials. Few dare defy the leadership’s will by voting against proposals or abstaining from ballots, and the congress has never voted down a proposal put before it. The meeting is likely to approve a modest restructuring of government ministries and agencies. Over past months, analysts and well-connected businesspeople have said that Mr. Li wanted a drastic reorganization, to create enlarged ministries for financial regulation, environmental protection and other areas. But recent Chinese news reports have described a more limited plan that is likely to include folding the scandal-laden and deeply indebted Ministry of Railways into the Ministry of Transport, and strengthening food and drug safety regulators to bring greater oversight of industries that are constantly hit by consumer safety concerns. The apparent scaling back of the plans for administrative changes reflects how difficult it will be for the leadership to deliver on promises to free up the economy from state-owned enterprises and fight corruption, while still preserving single-party rule, said Zheng Yongnian, director of the East Asian Institute at the National University of Singapore. “In all these issues, there’s the same basic problem of deep distrust between the people and the government,” Mr. Zheng said. “Because there is so much distrust, the government is reluctant to make deep reforms. What they call reforms turns out be reassigning powers within government, not giving up powers to society. That’s not real reform — and then people feel increasingly frustrated.” Reformists have been hoping that the new leadership would demonstrate a greater commitment to China’s Constitution, and would promote a more independent judiciary. They have also been agitating for an end to the country’s notoriously abusive re-education-through-labor system, which allows the police to imprison drug addicts, prostitutes and political offenders for up to three years without trial. “The re-education-through-labor system, to a certain extent, makes citizens live in fear,” Dai Zhongchuan, a delegate and law professor, told a government-run news portal on Monday. Many analysts, however, say such initiatives are unlikely to be embraced by China’s new leaders any time soon. Party insiders have said that some officials likely to be promoted at the congress include Zhang Gaoli as executive deputy prime minister, and Li Yuanchao, a former party organization chief, as vice president. Wang Yang, the former head of Guangdong Province in southern China, is likely to succeed Wang Qishan as a deputy prime minister in charge of financial policy. Mr. Bo was seen until last year as a contender for promotion into the central leadership, but his prospects capsized after the police chief of Chongqing fled to a United States consulate and then surrendered to Chinese investigators, raising allegations that Mr. Bo’s wife, Gu Kailai, had murdered a British businessman and then sought to cover up the crime. Ms. Gu was jailed in August for the murder. Mr. Bo is likely to face trial and conviction over the cover-up and other misdeeds. 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