ETV Today of Taiwan: Early this year, President Xi Jinping gave an important speech at the Meeting Commemorating the 40th Anniversary of the Issuance of the Message to Compatriots in Taiwan and that important speech received close attention from people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait. My question is: how will the mainland implement the policies and propositions set out in that important speech, in particular, to promote the common development of the two sides of the Taiwan Strait and improve the well-being of people on both sides?
Premier Li: Indeed, early this year, General Secretary Xi Jinping gave an important speech at the Meeting Commemorating the 40th Anniversary of the Issuance of the Message to Compatriots in Taiwan. In the important speech, he articulated our principles and policies on the Taiwan question. We will continue to adhere to the one-China principle and the 1992 Consensus, and oppose Taiwan independence. We will continue to work to promote peaceful growth of cross-Strait relations and the peaceful reunification of our motherland.
People on both sides of the Taiwan Strait are bound by kinship. We intend to introduce more preferential policies toward our compatriots in Taiwan to ensure that they will enjoy the same treatment as mainlanders when they come to work, study, live and do business on the mainland. Previously, we introduced 31 measures for promoting cross-Strait economic and cultural exchanges. These measures must be fully delivered. In this process, new measures should be introduced as well. When people on both sides of the Strait enjoy the same development opportunities and come closer to each other, the cross-Strait relationship will grow stronger and make more solid progress. We need to work hand in hand to realize our shared dream of national renewal.
People's Daily: Last year, some companies have started to trim staff. Some Chinese and foreign-invested firms have started to relocate their businesses overseas. We have also heard complaints by companies about a shortage of skilled workers. My question is: what measures will the government adopt to resolve these problems?
Premier Li: Indeed, in China's modernization process, there will always be tremendous employment pressure. In recent years, on average, some 15 million new entrants entered the labor force each year, and that number will not decrease in the foreseeable future. In addition, we also need to provide job opportunities for several million rural migrant workers every year. This year we plan to create another 11 million or more new urban jobs. And in actual practice, our goal is to generate the same amount of job opportunities as we did last year, that is, over 13 million. You may have also noticed, this year for the first time, we are elevating the status of jobs-first policy to a macro policy together with our fiscal policy and monetary policy. The tax cuts under the fiscal policy as well as cutting real interest rates under the monetary policy are all designed to ensure employment in our country. When there is a job, there is income and there is increase in social wealth.
Keeping our major economic indicators within a proper range is first and foremost about ensuring employment and preventing a surge in unemployment. To do that, we will apply a combination of measures including promoting employment for key groups of people like college graduates, demobilized military personnel and laid-off workers. This year, the number of college graduates will reach another new high-8.34 million. We also need to make sure there will be no zero employment families. For those companies that hire more, the government will provide more policy support. In the meantime, we will expand the platforms to encourage business start-ups and innovation as a way to generate more jobs. The state of employment very much reflects how our economy is faring.
The government work report touched mainly upon creating new urban jobs. Here I would like to make a special mention of our rural migrant workers which are now numbered at above 280 million. And that figure is still increasing by several million each year. These rural migrant workers are a leading force in many industries and sectors of our country. Much of their earnings come from non-farming jobs, and they carry the hopes of a lot of families. One thing I can never forget is that several years ago, I was visiting the construction site of a local transportation project in a mid-sized northeastern city, where I met some rural migrant workers. It was a cold winter day, and I talked to one of the workers who was about my age on the construction site. He said to me that he wanted to work longer hours so that he could earn more money. I asked him why. He said that his child was just enrolled into a leading university and he wanted to earn more so that his child won't have to worry about the college tuition fees and can focus on his studies. In his eyes I saw his hopes for a better future for his children.
Indeed, education has been an important underpinning force that keeps the Chinese nation going for several thousand years. That has made it possible for us to come this far in the past 40 years of reform and opening up. These rural migrant workers must be treated with kindness. And we must ensure that they will not only find jobs but also get paid for their work. There have been instances where their wages cannot be paid in full and on time. The government will formulate regulations to crack down on such malpractices to ensure that the lawful rights and interests of all rural migrant workers will be fully protected. The government must not fail the hope of all their families.
Spanish News Agency EFE: The trade war with the United States, in case that continues, could represent an opportunity to improve the relationship between Europe and China, or will only have negative effects. And in any case, what do you expect of the relationship between Europe and China this year?
Premier Li: The China-US trade friction is an issue between China and the United States. We will not exploit any third party. We will not target or hurt the interest of any third party. For China and the EU, China is the largest developing country in the world, the EU the largest union of developed countries in the world. And both are important poles in the multi-polar world. A growing China-EU relationship serves the interests of both China and the EU and the world at large.
China and the EU are each other's biggest trading partner. There has been cooperation as well as frictions in our relationship. Over the years, we have gained good experience in managing our differences and frictions and I believe such experience should continue to be applied. One very important experience is to deepen our mutual trust. The two sides are now advancing negotiations on an investment agreement. The purpose is to further facilitate the two-way flow of our investment to see that the two sides will benefit on an equal footing from this agreement. I believe that we need to view each other's development with an open mind and continue to properly handle our differences in the course of pursuing cooperation for continued, steady growth of our relationship. Next month, I am going to visit the EU Headquarters and host the next round of China-EU Summit with the EU leaders. I hope that both sides will view this relationship from a strategic and long-term perspective, and continue to show mutual respect, deepen our mutual understanding and advance cooperation in joint pursuit of sustained, healthy growth of our ties.
China Central Television: It seems that quality medical resources are still somewhat inaccessible and quite expensive. In particular, a serious illness could cause heavy burdens on the families concerned. I would like to ask: what specific measures will the government take to tackle this problem?
Premier Li: Accessing quality medical resources is indeed a key issue related to people's lives. And getting treatment for serious illnesses is truly an acute concern of our people. There does exist the problem of inaccessible and quite expensive medical care in our country. I would like to say that over the years we have been able to provide basic medical care services to cover the entire population. In addition, we have established the scheme for serious illness insurance with a cost-sharing formula between the government and individuals, an important measure to mitigate the burdens on patients with serious illnesses, especially needy patients. This is a quite creative step the Chinese government has taken.
There have been complaints about the high costs of cancer drugs, so last year, through various means including tax cuts, we managed to cut the prices of 17 cancer drugs by over 50 percent and included them into medical insurance schemes. This has significantly eased the financial burdens on cancer patients and poor families. This shows that the government must do its level best in resolving people's concerns.
This year the government plans to do its utmost in taking two major steps. First, we will make the outpatient drugs for chronic diseases like high blood pressure and diabetes reimbursable, and set the reimbursement rate at 50 percent. This measure will benefit some 400 million Chinese suffering from these chronic diseases. And when I talked to some of those patients, they told me that they have to take drugs every day and a lot of their pension benefits have to be spent on these drugs. This is a problem we need to address. Second, when it comes to serious illness insurance scheme, which already covers nearly 1.4 billion people, we will lower the payout threshold and raise the reimbursement rate so that this scheme can truly produce amplifying effects to benefit as many people as possible. Although we have established a medical care safety net that covers a large population, the level of actual benefits is still not high. For example, for Chinese farmers, their average per capita annual income is less than 15,000 yuan, so it would be very hard for one to just rely on himself or herself to cover expenses for the treatment of serious illnesses. The government and private entities must work together in this respect to meet people's health needs. Without health, there would be no happy life for our people.
