BEIJING — China’s government called Saturday for higher social spending, controls on inflation and measures to urgently close a divisive rich- poor gap, betting that rising living standards, better services and heavy policing will dampen growing public expectations for change.
In a speech that is China’s equivalent of a state-of-the-nation address, Premier Wen Jiabao said the government will boost spending 12.5 percent this year, with bigger outlays for education, job creation, low-income housing, health care and pensions, and other social insurance.
Spending on police, courts, prosecutors and other domestic security is projected to exceed the usually favored military budget for the first time in years, climbing 13.8 percent to $95 billion.
Wen reiterated several times during his two-hour-plus speech that the authoritarian government sees the combination of policies as crucial to forestalling unrest among a population grown used to greater prosperity and expecting more.
“We must make improving the people’s lives a pivot linking reform, development and stability . . . and make sure people are content with their lives and jobs, society is tranquil and orderly . . .,” Wen told the 2,923 delegates gathered in the Great Hall of the People for the opening of the national legislature’s annual session.
The emphasis comes as the government seems increasingly anxious about calls of unknown origin posted online urging Chinese to stage peaceful rallies every Sunday like the ones that topped autocrats in Tunisia and Egypt.
After a new appeal calling for more rallies today, the Beijing Daily issued a rare front-page editorial Saturday warning people not to be fooled into joining protests that would wreck China’s prosperity.
