Premier Wen Jiabao defended China's human rights record yesterday, saying the country was on a path to greater freedom.
A New Zealand reporter grilled the premier on the controversial issue for the first time during his week-long tour at a press conference.
'Anyone who is not biased will know that since the deepening of Chinese reforms and opening up, the Chinese people are becoming unprecedentedly more proactive and creative,' Mr Wen said.
'People have experienced greater freedoms in choosing their jobs, moving their homes, travelling to other countries as tourists and choosing information.'
Mr Wen said the ultimate goal of reforms was to make people use their own initiative to be more creative and to ensure that fundamental rights were achieved.
With a population of 1.3 billion people, the premier said Beijing had succeeded in feeding the whole population. Another significant accomplishment was lifting more than 200 million people out of poverty, he said.
'As the saying goes, 'A person living in poverty has no freedom to speak of',' Mr Wen said. 'This does not mean that we believe we have been perfect in our human rights record. We have our shortcomings.'