China aims to temper growth with help for poor citizens

1.  China will continue to pursue high-speed economic growth, according to a top-level policy pronouncement last night, but will attempt to temper its impact by improving social security, the health system and the incomes of its poorest citizens.

2.  The blueprint, which will form the core of the latest five-year plan for the economy, enshrines many of the policies that have been pushed by Hu Jintao to narrow the rich-poor gap since he became president in 2003.

3.  It stresses the need to strengthen environmental protection and sets benchmarks to improve energy efficiency, two reforms the party believes are needed to anchor the high growth targets.

4.  We need to put greater emphasis on social equity, enhance efforts in adjusting income distribution and strive to alleviate the tendency of the widening income gap between regions and parts of society.

5.  Between 1993 and 2003, the number of people with no medical insurance rose from 900m to 1bn - about 80 per cent of the population - according to official figures.

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/48e63298-3abd-11da-b0d3-00000e2511c8.html