Outgoing Chinese Premiere Wants "Moderately Prosperous Society"

Wen Jiabao out

In his final speech to his country's representatives, outgoing Chinese premier Wen Jiabao has given no benedictions nor made final demands other than more of the same: to urge his compatriots to build a "moderately prosperous society" in the world's second-largest economy.

Mr. Wen's dry, 100-minute address to the National People's Congress, the annual meeting of the country's rubber-stamp parliamentary body, left even the stock markets largely unmoved, the Hong Kong and Shanghai indices edging upward after days of losses.