Wealth Gap High on New Leadership's Agenda

Commenting on the challenges faced by China's new leadership, Angus Walker, a news anchor for Independent Television, said, "China is the second largest economy in the world, but in terms of GDP per capita, it ranks 101 in the world."

"It is worth remembering that China is a developing country. It is very rich and the government has money. Sure, it does, but it still has a long way to go," he said.

China's rural population made up most of the labor pool that has created China's economic boom over the past three decades. At the end of 2009, China had an estimated 229.8 million rural migrant workers, according to 2010 National Bureau of Statistics figures.

Mark MacKinnon, Beijing bureau chief of The Globe and Mail, a Canadian newspaper, saw a different China in the countryside; a place prosperity has not yet reached. He touched on a bigger problem facing China. That is when migrant workers from rural area get older, they want more and think differently.

"This is what the government will have to cope with in the near future," he said.

The opening report delivered by General Secretary Hu Jintao at the 18th National Congress pointed out that resolving issues relating to agriculture, rural areas and farmers is the Party's number one priority, and integrating urban and rural development provides a fundamental solution to these issues.

"If the Chinese government can make farmers' lives as good as urban residents, it will be a great accomplishment in human history," said Wang Dong, a Party delegate and chairman of Dayu Water Conservation Co. Ltd.