From Xinhua – English:
Premier Wen Jiabao said the issues concerning agriculture and rural areas and ecological protection should be prioritized in China’s large-scale development of the western regions, designed to bridge economic and social gap with the developed eastern regions.
……Of China’s 30 million needy population, about two-thirds of those with an average annual income below 625 yuan (about 75.3 US dollars) live in western rural areas.
