|
Wen Jiabao (Simplified Chinese:
温家宝; Traditional Chinese:
溫家寶; pinyin: Wēn Jiābǎo) (born September 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.
A native of Tianjin, Wen Jiabao was born in September 1942, joined in the famous Nankai High School from where the expremier Zhou Enlai graguated.
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 has lived
under house arrest in Beijing ever since. 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.
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 distribution of 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 includes damage to the
environment and to worker's 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.
Wen Jiabao meeting with Chinese farmers in the rural interior
Regarded as being quiet and unassuming, he is 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 being 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.
Wen has been involved in a two major episodes involving public health.
In early 2003, he was involved in ending official inaction over SARS. 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. By doing so, Wen appeared to be attempting to
reverse years of actions which many activists have seen as a policies of denial and inaction.
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.
See also:
External Links:
|