ChinesePremierBerates Banks

BY DINNY MCMAHON, LINGLING WEI AND ANDREW GALBRAITH

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao told a national audience on Tuesday that China's state-controlled banks are a "monopoly" that must be broken up, in a blunt appeal for a shake-up of the creaky financial system of the world's No. 2 economy.

In an evening broadcast on state-run China National Radio, Mr. Wen told an audience of business leaders that China's tightly controlled banking system needs to change.

"Let me be frank. Our banks earn profit too easily. Why? Because a small number of large banks have a monopoly," said Mr. Wen, according to the transcript of the program on the broadcaster's ..