Everything about Wen Jiabao totally explained
» This is a Chinese name; the family name is Wen.
Wen Jiabao (born
September 15,
1942) is the
Premier of the
State Council of the
People's Republic of China. He serves as a member of its Leading Party Members' Group and Secretary of the Financial Work Committee of the CPC Central Committee. Since taking office in
2003, Wen, ranked third in the
Politburo Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China hierarchy, has been a key part of the
fourth generation of leadership in the
Communist Party of China. Wen, having been dubbed "the people's premier", has a commoner image with the public that separates him from the rest of China's power elite, and his modesty and more approachable personality are held to contrast with the enigmatic and serious
Hu Jintao.
Rise to "power"
A native of
Tianjin, Wen Jiabao went to the famous
Nankai High School from which his predecessor premier
Zhou Enlai graduated. He joined the
Communist Party of China (CPC) in April
1965 and began working in September
1967.
A postgraduate and
engineer, Wen graduated from the specialty of geological structure of
Beijing Institute of Geology. Having studied
geomechanics in Beijing, he began his career in the
Gansu geology bureau; from
1968-
1978, he presided over the Geomechanics Survey Team under the Gansu Provincial Geological Bureau and head of its political section. Rising as chief of the Gansu Provincial Geological Bureau and later as minister for the
natural resources sector of the economy, Wen would rise through the ranks of the Politburo Central Committee in the 1980s and 1990s. Wen's move from
Gansu to
Beijing occurred while the party, then under the leadership of General Secretary
Hu Yaobang, was conducting a talent search; Wen was quickly promoted to serve as the deputy in the Party's Central Office. He remained in the post for eight years.
Wen Jiabao is the only Standing Committee member to have served under three party secretaries:
Hu Yaobang,
Zhao Ziyang, and
Jiang Zemin. A political survivor, his most significant recovery was after
1989, when Wen
was the head assistant to General Secretary
Zhao Ziyang. He accompanied then-Party Secretary Zhao Ziyang to
Tiananmen Square. Zhao was purged from the party days later for "grave insubordination" and lived under
house arrest in Beijing until his death in January
2005. Unlike his mentor, Wen was able to politically survive the aftermath of the demonstrations.
During a political career dating back to
1965, Wen has built a network of patrons. During that time Wen, a strong administrator and technocrat, has earned a reputation for meticulousness, competence, and a focus on tangible results. Outgoing Premier
Zhu Rongji showed his esteem for Wen by entrusting him, from
1998, with the task of overseeing agricultural, financial and environmental policies, considered crucial as China prepared to enter the
World Trade Organization. Wen served as Secretary of the
Central Financial Work Commission from 1998 to 2002.
First-term Premiership
Wen has been the third-ranking member of the Politburo Standing Committee, China's highest ruling council, since
November 2002. During the transition of power as Hu Jintao assumed the presidency in
March 2003, Wen Jiabao's nomination as premier was confirmed by the
National People's Congress with over 99% of the delegates' vote. As premier, Wen has overseen
China's economic reforms and has been involved in shifting national goals from economic growth at all costs to growth which also emphasizes more egalitarian wealth, along with other social goals, such as public health and education. In addition, the Chinese government under Wen has begun to focus on the social costs of economic development, which include damage to the environment and to workers' health. This more comprehensive definition of development has been encapsulated into the idea of a
xiaokang society.
Wen's broad range of experience and expertise, especially cultivated while presiding over agricultural policies under
Zhu Rongji has been important as the "fourth generation" seeks to revitalize the rural economy in regions left out by the past two decades of reform.
Initially regarded as quiet and unassuming, he's said to be a good communicator and is known as a "man of the people." Wen has appeared to make great efforts to reach out those who seem left out by two decades of stunning economic growth in rural and especially western China. Unlike
Jiang Zemin and his protégés on the Politburo Standing Committee, who form the so-called "
Shanghai clique", both Wen and Hu hail from, and have cultivated their political bases in the vast Chinese interior. Many have noted the contrasts between Wen and Hu, "men of the people" and Jiang Zemin, the flamboyant, multilingual, and urbane former mayor of the country's most cosmopolitan city. Jiang, unlike the more reserved Hu and Wen, is known to quote maxims from Chinese and Western philosophy and recite poetry in many languages.
Like President
Hu Jintao, whose purported brilliance and photographic memory have facilitated his meteoric rise to power, Wen is regarded as well-equipped to preside over a vast bureaucracy in the world's most populated and perhaps rapidly changing nation. In
March 2003, the usually self-effacing Wen was quoted as saying, "The former
Swiss ambassador to China once said that my brain is like a computer", he said. "Indeed, many statistics are stored in my brain."
Mild-tempered and conciliatory, especially compared to his predecessor, the tough, straight-talking
Zhu Rongji, his consensual management style has enabled him to generate a great deal of good will and little hostility in Beijing. Although noticeably, Wen has been widely known to have been in conflict with then-Shanghai party chief
Chen Liangyu, who disagreed with the central government's policies.
Wen has been involved in a two major episodes involving
public health. In early 2003, he was involved in ending the official inaction over the
SARS crisis. In
November 2003, he became the first major Chinese official to publicly address the problem of
AIDS, which has devastated parts of the provinces of
Yunnan and
Henan and threatens to be a major burden on Chinese development. Since
May 2004, Wen made various visits to communities devastated by AIDS, trips shown prominently on national media. By showing these actions, Wen appeared to be attempting to reverse years of actions which many activists have seen as a policies of denial and inaction. Furthermore, Wen is concerned about the health and safety of previous
drug addicts; since
March 2004, Wen had visited several drug addict treatment facilities in southern China and addressed the issue to the patients in person.
Wen's many visits to relatively poor areas of China's countryside were conducted randomly -- to avoid elaborate preparations to appease officials and hide the real situation, which is done often in China. At committee meetings of the
State Council, Wen made it clear that the rural wealth problem must be addressed. Along with President Hu Jintao, the "
Three Rural Issues" of agriculture, rural areas, and farmers were highlighted as areas that need work and development. The Hu-Wen administration abolished the thousand-year-old agricultural tax entirely in 2005, a bold move that significantly changed the rural economic model. Like his predecessor,
Zhu Rongji, Wen is generally seen as a popular communist official with the Chinese public. His attitude is seemingly sincere and warm, triggering comparisons with former premier
Zhou Enlai. Wen spent
Chinese New Year in 2005 with a group of coal miners in a
Shanxi coal mine. To many, Wen's image is the "people's premier", a populist, and an ordinary Chinese citizen who knows and understands ordinary people's needs. In an annual meeting of the Chinese Authors Association, Wen spoke for over two hours to the delegates without looking at any script. To foreign media, Wen also remains the highest government figure in China to give free press conferences, often facing politically sensitive and difficult questions regarding subjects such as
Taiwan Independence,
Tibet and
human rights.
Wen is also seen by many as an able diplomat. In
December 2003, Wen visited the
United States of America for the first time. During the trip, Wen was able to get President
George W. Bush to issue what many saw as a mild rebuke to the
President of the Republic of China,
Chen Shui-bian. Wen has also been on visits to Canada and Australia, mostly on economic issues.
On
15 March 2005, after the
anti-secession law was passed, by a majority of 2,896 to nil, with two abstentions by the
National People's Congress, Wen famously said: "We don't wish for foreign intervention, but we're not afraid of it." as an allusion to the United States' stance on
Taiwan. That earned him a long round of applause that was rare even by Chinese standards.
On
5 March 2007, Wen announced plans to increase the military budget. By the end of 2007 the military budget will rise to 17.8 percent compared to last years 45 billion dollars. These actions have created tension with the United States.
In
January 2008, while China was undergoing
severe snowstorms, Premier Wen made his way south and visited trains stations in Changsha and Guangzhou, addressing the public while calming their anger for long train waits.
Second-term Premiership
Premier Wen Jiabao was appointed to a second five-year term as China's premier
March 16 2008, leading efforts to cool soaring
inflation and showcase the country to the world at the
2008 Summer Olympics. He received less votes in favour than he did in 2003, a sign that the premiership can create enemies, even in the communist political system. Wen faces grave economic challenges as the world becomes increasingly affected by the U.S. economic crisis. Social stability and regional activism such as violence in Tibet are also require major concentration in policy. On
March 18,
2008, during the press conference after the
2008 National People's Congress, Premier Wen blamed supporters of the
Dalai Lama for violence in
Tibet, and said Chinese forces exercised restraint in confronting unrest there. Wen was the spokesman of the Chinese government during the
2008 unrest in Tibet and refused to negotiate with the Dalai Lama and his followers, unless they chose to give up all separatist activities.
Response to Earthquake
Premier Wen Jiabao's popularity increased even more when he went to the disaster area of the
2008 Sichuan Earthquake a mere few hours after the disaster occurred. Following his visits to the area and images of the Premier displayed on national media, numerous videos popped up on Chinese blogs making comparisons with former Premier
Zhou Enlai, who also had the title "People's Premier". Wen's popularity was noticeably boosted. When China's leaders are often shown on state television looking rather stiff and sitting motionlessly, Wen's on-site image and candid nature has attracted a large popular following of Chinese citizens.
Political views
There are significant disputes inside China as well as in the Hong Kong and Taiwan journalistic circles regarding the political views of Wen Jiabao. Because he appears more often than President
Hu Jintao in front of the press, Wen's viewpoints, although difficult to gauge in their entirety, are easier to discern than those of President Hu.
On the subject of political reform, Wen is seen as a moderate conservative, although more liberal than the hard-line Hu. He has remarked that "the socialist system will continue in China for the next 100 years", although later in a Press Conference at the
2007 National People's Congress, he vaguely stated that "democracy is one of the basic goals of the socialist system". Wen, a former ally of disgraced Premier
Zhao Ziyang, is likely supportive of the latter's political rehabilitation. However, thus far Wen has stuck to script and rarely mentions Zhao.
On the subject of Taiwan, Wen reputedly believes in gradual negotiations as opposed to Hu's slant towards eventual military action. Xinhua has published articles in early 2007 with Wen's name separately attributed in several articles on the direction of national development. This was suspected as a sign that Wen has some differing viewpoints to the official party line. In September 2007 Wen composed a poem on a national newspaper, subtly introducing his romantic perception about China's future development, a move lauded by overseas media.
State Council Administration
Wen leads the current
State Council, China's
cabinet.
Quotes
Talking about Chinese fast economic growth and social justice and fairness Wen Jiabao said: "
The speed of the fleet isn't determined by the fastest vessel; rather it's determined by the slowest one."
Further Information
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