Leaders take to the road with message on poverty

Communist Party General Secretary Hu Jintao has promised that the new leadership will rule for the people.

Mr Hu went some way to putting these words into practice, according to state media, during a visit to Inner Mongolia. He assured herdsmen and laid-off workers that: 'The party will give priority to the urgent task of meeting the basic food and clothing needs of the disadvantaged masses.'

Mr Hu urged local cadres to become better administrators and to provide technical help to boost the productivity of herdsmen and peasants, Xinhua reported, while noting Mr Hu undertook the four-day trip while temperatures fell to minus-35 degrees Celsius.

Mr Hu promised to devise a long-term strategy to combat poverty.

In the spirit of the party leader's visit, premier-to-be Wen Jiabao toured Shanxi province and delivered much the same message. During the weekend trip, Mr Wen said the central authorities were anxious to boost incomes in deprived areas under goals to boost consumer spending nationwide.

The missions served to boost Mr Hu's and Mr Wen's image of being committed to serving the people. They were also aimed at sending a strong message to local governments that spending priority will be given to projects that help the poor.

The growing wealth gap has led to rural unrest and tarnished the image of the Communist Party.

The visits were consistent with the two men's past behaviour, given that both had spent many years in impoverished provinces and have been involved in the effort to develop western regions.

But analysts said the trips carried extra meaning.

'It is a symbolic move for the party boss and the soon-to-be government chief to pick two very remote and poor provinces to visit at the beginning of the New Year to show their new policy direction,' said Chinese University professor Wu Guoguang, a former mainland official who believes the leadership will have difficulty meeting anti-poverty goals.

Beijing based analyst Wu Jiaxiang is more optimistic. He said the new leadership's recent policies and announcements had shown a will to tackle the problem, singling out a policy to provide all villages with adequate drinking water and expand the electricity supply.

Separately, Xinhua released a commentary yesterday critical of some county governments in Inner Mongolia for failing to provide help to poor peasants newly arrived in the region.