Premier Wen Jiabao said 2010 would be the most complex year yet this century for the mainland economy, and pledged to prevent inflation and rein in skyrocketing property prices, in an online chat yesterday with internet users.
He also addressed concerns over trade frictions with the US, and called for efforts to ease tensions.
Wen's internet question-and-answer session came in the run-up to the annual session of the National People's Congress, where he will deliver the annual government work report.
Xinhua said some 65,000 questions on subjects ranging from home prices to the homework burden for students, flooded into the central government's website and that of the news agency, the joint organisers of the session.
The questions Wen answered were apparently picked to cover the major topics in his government report.
'If last year was the most difficult for China's economy in the new century, this one is the most complicated,' Wen said.