Media frenzy revives debate on "reformer" Wen (News Feature)

By Bill Smith Oct 15, 2010, 12:27 GMT

Beijing - 'Mr Wen, please can you tell us your views of the Chinese dissident, Liu Xiaobo, winning the Nobel Peace Prize?' asks a CNN presenter.

'I've surfed many websites but I haven't seen this news anywhere,' Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao replies in the joke circulated on Chinese-language websites this week.

The online satirists were making fun of Wen's interview earlier this month with the US broadcaster in which he discussed China's 'continuous progress' and told CNN that 'the people's wishes for and needs for democracy and freedom are irresistible.'

As censors continue fighting the daunting battle to deprive China's estimated 400 million users of news of Liu, one of the organizers of the Charter '08 for democratic reform, some foreign and Chinese media have focussed on Wen's CNN interview and his comments on democracy in a speech in the southern city of Shenzhen in August.

'Without the protection afforded by political reforms, the gains we have made from economic reforms will be lost, and our goal of modernization cannot be realized,' state media quoted Wen, who is known to tens of millions of Chinese as 'Grandpa Wen,' as saying in Shenzhen.

Several state-run newspapers have run stories this month on Wen's CNN interview and another version of the interview published as a cover feature in CNN-affiliated Time magazine's Asia edition this week.

Excitement was also fuelled after another party official said the party's next five-year plan, expected to be agreed next week, would 'raise the curtain on New China's third 30 years of reform.'

The People's Republic of China was founded in 1949, and former leader Deng Xiaoping launched economic reforms in 1978.

Most reports focussed on Wen's comments on democracy but the influential Southern Weekend newspaper took a different stance on Wen's appearance on the cover of Time, saying it reflected his ability to make Western media understand China.

Some commentators go further, seeing the renewed focus on the Chinese premier by excitable commentators and optimistic reformers as mere wishful thinking.

Most, if not all, of the words used by Wen to discuss democracy have been used before by him or others in the Communist Party's elite, 24-member Politburo.

'Even if Wen did perform differently from others, I think it was also agreed by other members of the Politburo. It is impossible for those people (in the Politburo) to differ so much,' dissident writer Yu Jie told the German Press Agency dpa on Friday.

Yu was speaking by telephone from Beijing, where he said police had placed him under house arrest since his return from the United States on Thursday.

The Communist Party reacted angrily to Liu's Nobel award and police have kept many other activists, including Liu's wife, Liu Xia, under house arrest or other forms of detention to prevent them from publicly celebrating.

But more than 100 scholars and activists on Friday appealed to the government to release Liu and embrace democracy, the rule of law and other 'universal values.'

On Wednesday, a group of mostly retired Communist Party officials, academics and state-media editors issued an open letter urging China's leaders to allow full freedom of speech in accordance with the nation's constitution.

The party elders supported Wen's comments on democratic reform in their letter because 'his words are very sincere,' the organizer of the letter, former editor Xin Ziling, told dpa.

Xin blames the party censors for the omission of references to democracy from Wen's Shenzhen speech as it was reported by state media.

'When they reported the speech of Premier Wen, they reported other things and omitted the content about political reform,' he said

'The Central Propaganda Department plays a very bad role. Our letter pointed out this.'

Yu defied threats by Beijing's state security police and published his book, China's Best Actor: Wen Jiabao, in Hong Kong in August.

Wen and President Hu Jintao, who also leads the party and the army but often keeps a lower profile, 'complement each other' and together maintain stability, Yu argued in his book.

But Xiao Mo, another signatory of the appeal for free speech, said the party elders support Wen and condemn Yu's publication.

'Once I doubted him (Wen), because I never saw any measures ... But we understand that for the present he is not able to do much,' Xiao told dpa.

On Friday, Yu said: 'I still insist on my view.'

'If Mr Liu Xiaobo is released from jail, I may start to change some of my remarks,' he said.

'If he (Wen) does not make any effort like this, I will not believe any of his words,' Yu said.

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