Beijing has launched an ambitious “New Deal” for China’s farmers, aimed at lifting stagnant rural incomes through a combination of crop subsidies, tax cuts and infrastructure spending in inland areas far from the thriving coast.

The plan, called the “New Socialist Countryside”, is the centrepiece of the commitment by president Hu Jintao and premier Wen Jiabao to reduce gaping income inequalities split largely along an urban-rural divide.