Equity and justice shine more brightly than sunshinei

Premier Wen Jiabao meets both Chinese and foreign reporters after the closing ceremony of the annual session of the National People's Congress in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on March 14, 2012.?

Q: What steps will you take in your term to promote social equity and justice? You often log onto the Internet, there are praises as well as criticism on the performance of the Chinese government and yourself. How do you view the criticism?

A: Equity and justice shine more brightly than sunshine. In the past nine years, we have done a lot of work to promote social equity and justice. On the legal front, we amended the Constitution to include respect and guarantee of human rights. We established a Property Law to protect legal private assets. We also amended the Election Law to make rights of urban areas and rural areas equal. We also abolished the Measures for Assisting Vagrants and Beggars so that migrant workers can enter cities freely.

Second, in rural areas, we abolished the agricultural tax to ease the burden of farmers.

Third, in education, we've made nine-year free compulsory education available all over the country.

Fourth, we established and improved the social security system, including old-age pension, medical care and low-income subsistence allowance. Medical care insurance for working and non-working residents and a new type of rural cooperative medical care cover the whole nation.

In the last year of my term, the government will make every effort to pursue several difficult tasks as follows:

First, formulate an integral plan to reform the income distribution system.

Second, establish and issue regulation on expropriation and compensation of rural land.

Third, extend old-age insurance to the whole country. Fourth, boost poverty relief in poor areas.

Fifth, we've arranged the budget for educational expenditures to account for 4 percent of GDP. We'll make every effort to attain the goal and make sure all expenditures reasonable.

All the power of government is entrusted by the people. Therefore, we should create conditions for people to criticize the government. It feels natural for me to see people's criticism.

In fact, many important decisions of government derive from people's criticism. I even think of inviting representatives who often criticize the government to Zhongnanhai, the Chinese government's central compound, to listen to their advice face to face.

However, there are also slanders about me, which pains me. My individual personality is not understood by them and I feel a bit worried about society. I will press ahead and continue to struggle with courage despite slanders or rumors.