Premier: Lifting up poor will build nation's economy

KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
BEIJING -- China's fate depends on lifting some 750 million rural people from poor economic conditions, China's Premier Wen Jiabao said Tuesday in a rare meeting with reporters in which he also lashed out at local Communist Party officials who grab farmland.
Many local Communist Party officials have confiscated land for development, sometimes enriching themselves in the process and enraging Chinese farmers, who depend on small plots.
"We must give adequate and due compensation to farmers whose land is seized," Wen said. "We must also ... mete out harsh and strict punishment against those who breach the laws and regulations, and illicitly seize the land of the farmers."
Wen spoke shortly after the legislature approved increasing annual spending by 14 percent, to $42 billion, to help China's peasants deal with the crushing costs of health care and other social and economic problems. China's peasants earn barely a third of what their urban counterparts make, and rural unrest has been rising. More than 200 protests a day occur in China.
If China's leaders can strengthen development of the countryside, it will boost domestic demand, Wen said, and "build China's economy and society on more solid ground."