Wang Yang is no reformist leader

Wang Yang has never been far from the limelight during his five years as Guangdong party chief, so cue the headlines when he stepped down last month for another posting. Reviewing his own performance in the south, Wang said he "had not been lazy or deceptive, or tried to avoid facing up to problems".

This was solid praise indeed, rather different from the self-effacing assessment that senior officials usually give themselves at the end of a job. Unfortunately, in this case, the huge gap between reality and expectations does not quite warrant such self-confidence.

At the start of the Hu-Wen era 10 years ago, hopes were high that the government would finally initiate political reform. The first five years came and went without any action, but people said it must be because President Hu Jintao was still under the thumb of Jiang Zemin. Wait for the next five years, they said, when Hu would begin to consolidate his own power, and then China would see progress.

So when Wang took up the Guangdong posting, many saw him as Hu's special envoy, sent to the southern frontier to forge a new path of political reform for the nation.

Since then, Wang has become the poster boy for the reformist camp in the party and a darling of the media. His image as a reformer has endured even as the reputations of both Hu and Premier Wen Jiabao have taken a beating: over the past decade, Hu has shown himself willing to use repression to "maintain social stability", no matter the damage to society and the political and legal systems, while Wen's image as a clean and upright politician has suffered after the devastating media reports on his family's wealth.

There's no doubt Wang stands out among senior party officials for his quick mind and lack of affectation. He was expressive, and knew how to dress up bureaucratic rhetoric to make it more palatable. He should also be credited for creating some room for debate on reform with his call to "liberate people's thinking" and his push to strengthen civil society.

But as a member of the Guangdong press, I saw how Wang set back the media during his five-year rule. Freedom of speech is the foundation of all political and democratic reform. From this perspective, we can hardly give his performance a good appraisal.