BEIJING (AP) – Premier Wen Jiabao opened China’s national legislative session Saturday vowing never to allow Taiwanese independence, while promising to ease the potentially explosive domestic issue of grinding rural poverty with an economic plan calling for 8 percent growth this year.

The planned passage of an anti-secession bill – effectively a warning to Taiwan against declaring formal independence – has overshadowed the annual meeting of the National People’s Congress. Wen gave few details of the planned law, saying only that it “reflects the strong determination of the Chinese people to … never allow secessionist forces working for Taiwan independence to separate Taiwan from China.”

Taiwanese leaders say the proposed law could offer a pretext for a military attack on the island, which split from the mainland during the 1949 civil war and has been self-ruled since, although Beijing considers it part of China.

Wen said military modernization was key to “safeguarding national security and reunification” – another reference to Taiwan.

“We will intensify scientific and technical training for soldiers to turn out a new type of highly competent military personnel,” the premier said, referring to China’s effort to reduce the size of its 2.5 million member People’s Liberation Army while investing in modern weaponry.

Wen’s speech to the cavernous Great Hall of the People also dwelt heavily on improving conditions in China’s sprawling hinterland.

“Solving the problems facing agriculture, rural areas and farmers remains a top priority of our work,” Wen said in the two-hour, nationally televised speech to delegates. “There are more than a few factors threatening social stability.”

While annual incomes in China average a mere $1,000, some 800 million people – mostly farmers – in the countryside lag far behind even this figure, their paltry salaries offset by higher incomes in fast-growing eastern cities.

Discontent over land seizures by local officials have sparked violent protests. Access to medical care, education and other public services has also deteriorated in many regions.

“Our concerns are very serious,” Liu Huaguo, a legislator from the northern province of Shaanxi, said after Wen’s address. “We are putting rural issues at the heart of our work. This will give the farmers great hope.”

Wen also promised that all farm taxes will be ended by next year and that, by 2007, every Chinese child can receive nine years of schooling. Children from poor families will be exempt from most fees and receive free textbooks, Wen said, though he did not say whether they will have to pay tuition.

Other than the Taiwan issue, the premier mentioned foreign affairs only in passing. He declared China’s opposition to terrorism and what he called hegemony, Beijing’s term for perceived U.S. dominance of global affairs.

On the economy, he forecast a growth rate of 8 percent for 2005, well below last year’s rate of 9.5 percent. China will create 9 million new jobs while limiting public spending and debt as authorities attempt to slow an economic boom they worry could ignite inflation, he said.

The annual meeting of the figurehead legislature is a venue for promoting national policies and ensuring the party rank-and-file fall in line. The 2,985 members approve legislation drafted by the ruling Communist Party during the session, which ends March 14.

Hundreds of police and plainclothes security agents stood guard outside the Great Hall and on adjacent Tiananmen Square to prevent protests. At least two people were detained – an ethnic Chinese man from abroad who unfurled a banner protesting an investment project gone sour, and an elderly woman who shouted at police. She was bundled, weeping, into a van by guards.

AP-ES-03-05-05 1654EST

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