China will enact laws this year aimed at improving the living standards of its 800 million rural people and ensuring equitable public services, according to the chairman of a advisory body.

"We will focus on ways to stimulate social development and solve problems concerning the people's wellbeing," Jia Qinglin, chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, said at the start of the body's annual meeting in Beijing Saturday, March 3.

President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao have made the rural two-thirds of China's population their policy focus, seeking to preserve public confidence in the ruling Communist Party and to prevent the widening income gap from causing social unrest. Economic growth has benefited eastern cities more than the countryside.

"China must cater to the broader interests of the population and spread the wealth if it truly wants sustainable growth," said Justin Lin Yifu, an economist at Peking University, and a delegate to today's conference.

Last year, the economy expanded 10.7 percent, the fastest pace in 11 years, and is now the world's fourth-largest. Urban incomes are three times those in rural areas, a gap that doubled in the past 25 years.

Other Priorities

Other government priorities are strengthening macroeconomic regulation, restructuring the economy, changing the pattern of growth, conserving energy and resources, protecting the environment and foster innovation, Jia said in today's speech.

The government gathered grassroots opinions to prepare for the conference and subsequent National People's Congress meeting, Jia said, adding that the Communist Party also puts a premium on working more closely with delegates who aren't party members.

"We should also work more closely with religious groups and make use of their contributions to build a harmonious society in China," Jia said in his speech, given at the Great Hall of the People in central Beijing.

Elsewhere, China will continue to oppose independence activity in Taiwan, and strengthen ties with Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and overseas Chinese, Jia said. It will seek continued stability and prosperity in Hong Kong and Macau, he said.

Diplomacy

"We'll continue to pursue more diverse and flexible channels of diplomacy, including non-governmental mechanisms," Jia said. "We've communicated China's commitment to pursuing a peaceful rise."

China will continue to apply Deng Xiaoping's thought, Jiang Zemin's writings and the "Three Represents" principle to build "a socialist economy with Chinese characteristics suitable to China's policy of reform and opening," Jia said.

More than 2,200 delegates of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference convened in Beijing March 3 to advise the legislature, the National People's Congress, which meets in the Chinese capital starting March 5.

"The focus of the suggestions in 2006 were to build a Socialist rural economy, energy conservation and energy security, building an equitable national healthcare system and ensure reasonable market prices," advisory group Vice Chairman Huang Mengfu said in a speech today.

Ordinary People

Last year, the consultative conference helped the government establish a 6-billion yuan ($770 million) fund to provide 300 yuan in annual allowances for 23.7 million rural residents, the group's spokesman Wu Jianmin said yesterday.

China's political advisers are "paying a lot of attention to the interests of ordinary people," Wu said. Other proposals address concerns about the costs of economic growth, which include environmental damage, corruption and the widening income gap, he said.

Delegates are more focused than ever on issues relating to "maintaining social stability, and that means catering to the interests of the poor," Guan Anping, a Beijing-based lawyer and former trade official said in a phone interview on March 1.