China frets about rural poverty, instability

BEIJING -- Village official Shen Licheng trekked from his dusty hamlet of 2,000 people to Beijing to report on his part in China's fight to shore up its flagging agricultural sector.

His words were not encouraging.

"We feel as if we have suffered a great injustice because, as a rural official, it's just too hard to raise farmers' incomes," Shen, the Communist Party secretary of Wu'an village in northern Hebei province, grumbled to fellow lawmakers at China's national legislative session.

The plight of China's 800 million farmers was an overriding theme at the annual meeting of the National People's Congress in March. From Premier Zhu Rongji down, officials and lawmakers fretted that farmers are being left behind in China's pursuit of economic growth, threatening social stability.

Fears for farmers are sharpened by China's entry into the World Trade Organization. To join the club that makes world trade rules, China promised to pry open agricultural and other markets. The government says 20 million jobs may be lost as small, inefficient farms succumb to Australian, U.S. and other foreign competitors.

"This is giving me a lot of headaches," Zhu said.

The Communist Party is acutely aware of the risk of rural instability. Tax riots, disputes over land and water, and protests over corruption are already common.

Farmers' low purchasing power also is frustrating government efforts to spur national economic growth by boosting domestic demand for new products.

Zhu acknowledged that some farmers have grown poorer since he was appointed premier in 1998. Last year, rural incomes rose just 4.2 percent to the annual equivalent of $275, the government said. Incomes in cities, in contrast, rose 8.5 percent to $837.

Zhu promised that the government would help by improving grain and cotton marketing, streamlining rural bureaucracy, and by reducing farmers' tax and utility bills.

Finance Minister Xiang Huaicheng promised $3.3 billion to develop better seeds and livestock and to help farmers weather WTO competition.

"Farmers are the No. 1 victims of WTO entry," Zhu said. "There just isn't enough time to adjust."