China's social program

As usual, on March 5, the National People's Congress started its annual session in Beijing. Following the heavy snowfall on Sunday, it was bitterly cold on this Monday morning. Traveling by subway to the Great Hall of the People on the West side of Tiananmen Square, I was squeezed like a sardine, swept up by the giant tide of the commuting masses onto the Loop line subway car. Between Dongzhimen and Jianguomen you could hardly breath or move, but most people got off at Jianguomen so I got some breathing room before arriving a Qianmen station.

My press card was checked no less than 7 times between the outer perimeter of the cordoned-off area and the entrance to the main meeting hall within the Great Hall of the People. Nobody without the right credentials could have slipped past, but besides that, the security people seemed to be a little more relaxed than in previous years.

The cold outside contrasted sharply with the warm hart Premier Wen Jiabao offered to China's poor and disadvantaged. In his “Report on the Work of the Government” he presented a vigorous social program: guaranteed minimum income for all, no school fees for pupils in the Western regions, free tuition for students at six teachers' colleges, the building of a comprehensive network of health clinics, stringent environmental protection rules and finally the objective to build a harmonious society in China in a harmonious world.

While I was diligently reading the English version of the report on the first available row of seats on the third floor of the hall, many delegates two floors below were sleeping according to pictures published in several media. They seemed to be so used to sleeping through meetings that they even can't manage to stay awake to listen to the most important report of the year. How can they deliberate on it if they haven't read it or listened to Wen's speech?

One disappointing note in the report was the lack of attention to diplomacy and the world situation. China is welcoming ever more foreign investment, and as a member of the U.N. Security Council is involved in deliberating many international issues, but this was not reflected in Premier Wen's report. How can you hope to build a harmonious world without denouncing and opposing American imperialism?