Quotes: China’s Premier Wen Jiabao Reveals His Family Was Persecuted

Wen Jiabao has spoken about how his family was persecuted under Mao. Here are the highlights from his speech.

“I was born into an intellectual family in Yixing, north Tianjin in 1942. My grandfather ran a school in the village. It was the first primary school to admit girls, against pressure from the local landlords. Many of the teachers were university graduates and some became professors after 1949”.

“My childhood was spent in war and hardship. The poverty, turmoil and famine left an indelible imprint on my young soul [ …] I realised only science, truth-seeking, democracy and hard work can save China.”

“I know well that the hardships did not just afflict my family, or the particular era I was born in, but that actually the history of China is a history of a nation in hardship.”

Chinese Premier Reveals His Family Was Persecuted Under Mao’s Rule

Wen Jiabao, the Chinese premier, has revealed how his family were “constantly persecuted” during the darkest years of Chairman Mao’s rule, in a speech that may be a warning to the hardline faction within the Communist party not to repeat the mistakes of history.

The speech, delivered in front of students at Mr Wen’s alma mater, the Nankai high school in Tianjin, recalled the paranoia and fear of life in China at the end of the 1950s as a deeply divided Communist party hunted down its opponents.

“I was born into an intellectual family in Yixing, north Tianjin in 1942. My grandfather ran a school in the village. It was the first primary school to admit girls, against pressure from the local landlords. Many of the teachers were university graduates and some became professors after 1949,” said Mr Wen, delving into his past for the first time publicly.

China’s Premier Wen Jiabao speaks about his family “constantly attacked” in Mao’s political campaigns, to high school students

By Chris Buckley, Nov. 2, 2011-

BEIJING (Reuters) – Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said his family was “constantly attacked” in Maoist political campaigns that convulsed the country over past decades, giving a rare glimpse into his tumultuous past as he prepares to leave office.

China’s wary leaders rarely talk about their pasts. But the premier opened up in comments to students and teachers that were published in the China Education News on Wednesday, saying his father was dismissed as a teacher and sent to tend pigs.

“After I went to high school and university, my family suffered constant attacks in the successive political campaigns,” Wen told the audience at Nankai High School, his alma mater in the north port city of Tianjin near Beijing.

Chinese Premier’s ‘Sick’ Claim at Train Crash Press Conference Questioned

On the sixth day following the Wenzhou train crash, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao attended a press conference near the crash site. After it concluded, careful citizens were able to find several glaring inconsistencies in the official reports.

In the past few years, Chinese media has described Wen as the first of China’s high-ranking leaders to arrive in person at the site of any tragedy or accident in its attempt to promote an image of Wen as a leader who loves the people.

Concerning his delayed visit this time, Wen explained at the conference: “I have been sick recently and confined to my bed for 11 days. Not until today was I released from the hospital. This is why I could not show up at the crash site until the sixth day. I am willing to answer any of your questions.”

China’s Premier Wen Jiabao May Be The Attack Target of Communist Editorial in People’s Daily

The bloomberg, Oct 27, 2010 –

China’s Communist Party mouthpiece, the People’s Daily, disputed criticism that political reform is lagging behind economic growth, in what analysts said may be an attack on calls for greater openness by Premier Wen Jiabao.

“The idea China’s political reform is seriously lagging its remarkable economic development and achievements is contrary” to “objective facts,” the Beijing-based paper said in a front-page editorial, excerpts of which were read on yesterday’s evening news on state television. Political change can’t have “pompous and empty slogans,” the article said.

People’s Daily editorials have been used for decades — including during the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution and 1989 Tiananmen Square protests — as a platform for party factions to air views and attack rivals. Today’s piece contrasts with remarks made by Wen, who said in a speech in Shenzhen in August that economic achievements were in danger of being lost without greater political reform.

In China, Even the Premier Is Censored

Wall Sreet Journal, Oct 18, 2010  –

From the outside, China can seem monolithic, run by Communist Party officials united by the prime directive of maintaining power. But every once in a while splits become visible and remind us that while China may now be the world’s second-largest economy, there’s a steep price for being a laggard when it comes to the free flow of information.

Consider Prime Minister Wen Jiabao. He has called for political reform several times in recent months, but censors have blocked domestic reporting of his comments. This led to an open letter from 23 well-known Communist Party elders calling for free speech. The letter was posted last week in a blog area of sina.com, one of the country’s largest websites, and widely shared before being removed.

This letter is worth attention, both for its authors and its substance. The signatories include a who’s who of former Communist Party propagandists, including Li Rui, the former private secretary to Mao Zedong, and retired top editors of the People’s Daily (the party’s mouthpiece), Xinhua (the official news agency) and the China Daily (the state-run English-language newspaper)…….(Wall Sreet Journal)

Obama Should Tell Wen to Stop the ‘Gendercide’, Advocates Say

By Matthew Robertson, Epoch Times Staff, Sep. 24 –

WASHINGTON, D.C.— Before Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao leaves the U.S., human rights activists say President Obama should bring up a topic that is as important as it is underreported: the systematic destruction of tens of millions of unborn babies, overwhelmingly female.

It began on Sept. 25, 1980, almost 30 years ago to the day. After two years of policy formulation, the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party promulgated its plan to launch a one-size-fits-all approach to reproduction, the coercive family planning scheme known as the one-child policy.

The architects of the policy were actually elite scientists in the military establishment—at that time in China almost all science was military science—who applied theories of cybernetics to disputed sociological theories from the West, redefining China’s population problem along the lines of the hard science of complex machine systems. The result was a radical solution to the perceived “overpopulation” problem, led by one of China’s leading strategic weaponeers, according to the extensive research of Dr. Susan Greenhalgh from the Univeristy of California, Irvine…….(more details from The Epochtimes)

Cambridge throws shoe at China Premier in Britain

AFP, Jan. 2, 2009 –

CAMBRIDGE (AFP) — A protester Monday threw a shoe at Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao as he was giving a speech at Britain’s Cambridge University, just missing him.

“This is a scandal” he shouted before security staff bundled him out of a concert hall at the university, where Wen was speaking on the last day of a five-nation tour of Europe.

The protester, a young Western-looking man in a T-shirt, added: “This dictator here, how can you listen to the lies he’s telling? You are not challenging him.”

“How can the university prostitute itself with this dictator?”, he added.

Echoing the incident in December when an Iraqi journalist hurled two shoes at US President George W. Bush in Baghdad, he threw the well-worn trainer from near the back of the auditorium.

It landed about a yard (metre) from the Chinese premier, but did not hit him.

Security officials went on to the stage and kicked it off and a Chinese official took it away under his jacket.

The protester also blew a whistle. As he was bundled out, he said: “Stand up and protest.” Audience members retorted: “Shame on you, shame on you.”

Wen said after the interruption: “This despicable behaviour cannot stand in the way of friendship between China and the UK.”

He received a round of applause from the audience, who were apparently mostly Chinese students.

The premier appeared unruffled by the incident and resumed his speech before taking questions.

Pro-Tibet protesters questioning China’s human rights record have demonstrated throughout Wen’s three-day visit to Britain.

Wen was to return home later Monday at the end of a trip that has also taken him to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and to Germany, the EU headquarters in Brussels and Spain.

– AFP: Cambridge throws shoe at Wen in Britain

Slogan Read to China Prime Minister Spread Out on Internet

By Maria Zheng, Epoch Times German Staff, Mar 21, 2007-

“The village representatives tell lies to the community and the community representatives lie to the county level officials. The lies do not stop there. The lies continue from level to level, up to the Chinese State Council. The Chinese State Council gives directions, which will then move back, level by level, until it reaches the lowest level. Once the officials have read the directive, they will go to have dinner and the directives become empty words from their mouths.”

Yang Zhifu, 70 years old and a delegate at the Chinese People’s Political Consultation Conference (CPPCC), was allowed to read this above slogan, commonly used among Chinese people, to Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao during the CPPCC in Beijing on March 3. It is rumored that Yang Zhifu was not a delegate slated to present a speech during this particular plenary session. Yang Zhifu may have obtained permission after handing a note to the Prime Minister, asking to be given the opportunity to speak to the assembly. According to observers of the incident, Wen granted his request and announced his name as the next speaker. The Prime Minister listened to the speech and appeared deep in thought, according to witnesses. Since that day, this people’s slogan read by Yang Zhifu has spread rapidly on the Internet in China.

Deception by Chinese Officials

Willful misrepresentation is commonly employed by Chinese officials. It is not a secret in China that officials at all levels conceal facts and publicize falsehoods. The following example illustrates this fact. A few years ago, then Prime Minister Zhu Rongji announed that he would look at the Grain Supply Center of the Nanlin District in Anhui Province. Local government officials quickly obtained loads of grain from surrounding cities, seeking to prove to the Prime Minister how well the city council had fulfilled its obligations. The officials had purchased as much grain as possible from the surrounding farms. The deceived Prime Minister expressed his approval of the “excellent work” by the staff of the Grain Supply Center. Prime Minister Wen Jiabao is well aware of such deceptions and reportedly often lets the officials know this. It is rumored that he often walks without preamble while investigating the work of local officials and visits a farmers’ family that had not been told what to say beforehand. He also refuses to leave the car when visiting a farmer’s family who was tutored ahead of time.

Just as his predecessor Zhu, Wen appears to want to truly bring change during his time in office. One questions is: Can he truly accomplish this, or is he going to fail just as his predecessor did, as long as he holds onto China’s totalitarian Communist system?

Can brakes be applied to the increasing discontent in the heart of the populace?

It is without doubt that the highest administrative body in China, the Chinese State Council, no longer can control the wide network. Due to want of an official control system and a judicial system that acts arbitrarily, local officials have increasingly taken matters into their hands. They turn ever more corrupt, thus leading to increasing conflicts and discontent among the common people over local governance. In the meantime, such conflicts in entire localities are being sealed off from public view, and tanks and the military are brought in to contain the conflicts. How much longer can the people’s resentment at the corrupt officials be contained?

– original report from the Epoch Times

China: 100 Years to Democracy

Bangkok Post, Thailand, February 27, 2007-

Beijing (dpa) – Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao wrote in an article carried Tuesday in the state media that democracy would not be allowed soon because China’s economic development took precedence over political reforms.

Wen said China remained a developing country in an initial, underdeveloped state of socialism, where it would remain for a long time.

“We are still far away from advancing out of the primary stage of socialism,” he said. “We must stick with the basic development guideline of that stage for 100 years.”

Social injustice and corruption still exist in China and its socialist system, socialist market economy and legal system needed to mature, he said.

A wide gap has been developing in recent years between rich and poor, and Wen said China must concentrate on achieving a main pillar of socialism, securing “fairness and social justice.”

He added, however, that socialism and democracy do not contradict one another and pledged to eventually develop democracy but in China’s own way.

Hallmarks of a mature socialist system is a highly developed democracy and a full-functioning legal system, he said.

He added that China must encourage innovation to become more modernized and open and must learn and “boldly” absorb advanced management techniques from other countries while also building a harmonious society.

Wen’s remarks came days before China’s top legislature and national advisory body are to open their annual sessions. The Communist Party Congress, which convenes every five years, is also to meet this year and was expected to decide on changes in China’s top leaders.

The congress was also expected to pass China’s first property law, which was seen as a big step in the direction of establishing a capitalist market economy.

– original report from Bangkok Post