Advertisement
Advertisement

Wen makes the grade, but could do much better

Premier scores high points on rural, economic development, but makes little headway on the environment and graft

When he walks to the podium of the Great Hall of the People to deliver his third Government Work Report tomorrow, Premier Wen Jiabao will present his report card for the past year and set out the agenda for the current one as usual, with this year's focus expected to be on how to improve people's lives.

But while Mr Wen will rattle off the achievements of the past year to the constant applause of more than 3,000 obliging NPC deputies and CPPCC delegates, his report card only tells part of the story.

Last year should be regarded as one of Mr Wen's best years since becoming premier in March 2003, despite headline reports of deadly mining accidents, massive poisoning of rivers, an upsurge in bloody riots across the country and a widening income gap.

The mainland economy, fuelled by record exports and strong investment, grew 9.9 per cent last year, overtaking Britain's as the fourth-largest in the world.

The central government achieved significant breakthroughs in financial reforms including the decision in July to break the yuan's peg to the US dollar and replace it with a link to a basket of currencies.

The initial yuan revaluation was small, but its symbolic significance should not be underestimated. In October, China Construction Bank set a milestone by raising more than US$9 billion through an initial public offering in Hong Kong.

Mr Wen's biggest achievement on the domestic front last year was in agricultural development, and he is expected to devote considerable space to it in his report. Mr Wen achieved something that no other leader in the history of the People's Republic had even attempted by abolishing the agricultural tax imposed on farmers, dating back more than 2,000 years.

He is expected to report that the government earmarked more money for the countryside last year, as well as stepping up efforts to protect the welfare of migrant labourers, cutting school fees in rural areas, and promising to provide free education for all rural students and basic medical coverage for all rural residents by 2010.

Those efforts would pave the way for a major initiative dubbed 'building the new socialist countryside', which the central government is putting together to lift the living standards of Chinese farmers and bridge the income gap, as well as boosting consumption among the nation's more than 800 million rural dwellers as a long-term engine for economic growth.

This marks a clean break from the former Soviet model the government had adopted for nearly 60 years, which was to boost urban development at the expense of the rural areas.

Last year Mr Wen for the first time made it clear that the restructuring of government administration should be a top priority because the bureaucracy had become one of the major stumbling blocks for economic reforms.

For economic growth, and agricultural development in particular, Mr Wen definitely deserves an eight out of 10.

The results are particularly impressive because Mr Wen steered the country forward at a time when fierce debates within the government and the ruling Communist Party rumbled along throughout the year about the overall direction of China's economic reforms and economic development programme. Many analysts have expressed fears that the raging debates could slow down reforms this year.

But Mr Wen's scores would have to be considerably lower when it comes to the environment and industrial safety.

Last March Mr Wen attracted the loudest applause from NPC deputies when he announced for the first time that his administration would strive to 'let people drink clean water, breathe fresh air and have a better environment in which to live and work'.

But his pledges were met with a series of deadly mining accidents and serious river contamination - including the massive poisoning of the Songhua River, which cut off water supplies to the 4 million residents of Harbin and other smaller cities for nearly a week. The catastrophe led to the sacking of China's top environmental chief.

Although the government response to disasters was faster and more transparent than in previous years, this suggested that fighting pollution had not truly become a national priority despite Mr Wen's pledges. On the environment, Mr Wen deserves five out of 10.

Another major challenge for Mr Wen is official corruption, which has consistently ranked at the top of various surveys about mainland concerns.

For many people, official corruption got worse last year despite the government's more high-profile efforts to contain it. Late last year, the mainland leadership announced it would focus its anti-corruption crackdown on the bribery of officials in business transactions, but results have not been released.

For many analysts at home and abroad, the most effective way to fight democracy is to push ahead with political reforms and boost government transparency.

Mr Wen should definitely improve his scores in those two areas.

Post