Government and Policy

Chinese Premier to chat with Internet users

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-02-27 08:38

BEIJING - Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao will hold an online chat with Internet users across the country and overseas on Sunday, the third time the leader has participated in the event prior to the annual session of China's top legislature.

Wen will answer questions posted by Internet users at www.xinhuanet.com, the official website of Xinhua News Agency. The chat is scheduled for 9 am (Beijing time) and will be shown live on the central government's website (www.gov.cn) and www.xinhuanet.com.

Three hours after the news was announced, nearly 7,000 questions about hefty housing prices, inflation, wealth gap and other social issues have been posted for the chat on www.xinhuanet.com.

"Premier Wen, the housing prices have been increasing. I've waited for five years, yet the longer I wait, the less able I am to afford an apartment. I hope the government can take decisive measures to let the masses have their own homes," said an Internet user who goes by the name of "a household without an apartment".

The concern over high housing prices are shared by many Internet users living in large cities like Beijing and Shanghai, where property prices are so high that even the lifetime savings of an ordinary worker would not be enough for an apartment.

But one Internet user from central China's less-developed Anhui province expressed concern about house prices in small and medium-sized cities.

"In a place as under-developed as ours, apartment prices have risen to over 5,000 yuan ($769) for one square meter," the comment read.

Many other queries were about key livelihood issues such as employment, education, medicare and corruption. Some also cared about economic development, energy security and environmental pollution in the country, which has the largest number of Internet users in the world.

Sunday's chat will be the third time the premier has held such a discussion before the National People's Congress, China's top legislature, convenes its annual session in March.

Wen held his first online chat on Feb 28, 2009 at the two websites, receiving questions from nearly 300,000 Internet and mobile phone users about issues such as unemployment, wealth gap, social justice and democracy.

In last year's chat on Feb 27, Wen pledged that the government would step up efforts to rein in soaring property prices and manage inflation expectations.