China's leaders have set an ambitious 5% economic growth target this year. But poorer people in the aging countryside have been left behind even as the rest of China's economy has risen.
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00:00It's well before dawn outside Shichuan metro station, but there's already a crowd gathered
00:08over two hours before the first train of the day, farmers with heavy baskets of produce
00:13to sell in the city.
00:17This is Metro Line 4 in the Chinese megacity of Chongqing.
00:22It's nicknamed the Basket Line because of the crowd of peddlers who commute with their
00:25farm products each day.
00:28Many are over 65, meaning their rides are free.
00:32But it's a grueling daily journey downtown and back, with dozens of kilos of wares carried
00:37on poles.
00:54And the sheer number of farmers, each with so much fresh produce to offer, means prices
00:59are low, and the daily take may only be a few U.S. dollars.
01:03Still, many of these farmers are past the age when they could find other work, and with
01:08average rural pensions much lower than those for city dwellers, around 20 U.S. dollars
01:12a month, every bit counts.
01:19Far away in Beijing, China's leaders know all about farmers like these, and they haven't
01:24forgotten the rural poor.
01:26In a report they released Wednesday during their annual Two Sessions meeting, they promised
01:31solid steps to advance rural reform and development, and help for low-income rural residents.
01:37Still, China has other big priorities.
01:41It's boosting defense spending by 7.2 percent this year.
01:45And it's aiming for 5 percent GDP growth too, despite a trade war with the U.S. and a range
01:50of woes, from youth unemployment to a property debt crisis and sputtering domestic consumption.
01:59That last bit, weak consumer demand at home, is one of the chief problems China wants to
02:04overcome to hit that 5 percent target.
02:07But to do that, it may need to first turn its attention to higher earners' bank accounts.
02:12So it's quite clear the government wanted to boost the middle and low-income households'
02:19income and their income expectation.
02:22But I think they need to focus more on the middle class and middle and high-income households
02:28as well, because they are also suffering because of the troubles in the housing market.
02:34And we all know that the housing market will also affect consumer sentiment through wealth
02:40in fact.
02:41So, back beneath the sleek, modern skyline of Chongqing, the regular slog on the basket
02:46line goes on.
02:48As Beijing pushes for strong growth, talk of 12 million new jobs in China's cities has
02:53little impact on these folks from the countryside.
02:56Some of these poor farmers who've been left behind in China's economic rise say they have
03:00little expectation things will change.
03:03The seeds, fertilizers, and agricultural oil prices are too high, as they say.
03:10I can only say that we'll have to wait and see.
03:15In the world's second biggest economy, the benefits of rapid growth haven't been even.
03:23And as in many countries, there are deprived areas and poor groups of people waiting for
03:28the swift development in the cities to reach them.
03:31Andy Xue and John Ventriest for Taiwan Plus.