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CHINESE Premier Wen Jiabao wants to increase welfare spending so that many more of the country's people enjoy the benefits of economic growth.

On Friday, he briefed the National People's Congress on a plan to improve education, provide for the rural poor while ensuring affordable urban housing and increase social security, including a 10 per cent increase in old age pensions. Mr Wen's proposals are understandable and overdue, especially his proposal to deal with the discrepancy in urban and rural living standards. Per capita income in the country is less than one-third of the money made by city folk but peasants who go to work in town have limited access to health and welfare services there. And as China's extraordinary industrialisation continues, the peasants and factory...