Premier in rare defence of record
Premier Wen Jiabao has mounted a rare public defence of his macroeconomic policies, which have been criticised both within the Communist Party and overseas.
In an uncharacteristically assertive manner, Mr Wen arranged an interview with a group of Hong Kong reporters yesterday during his visit to Russia. The premier said the criticism directed at his economic policies was ill-founded - the strong and stable growth vindicated those policies.
'Everybody agrees that China's economy has been doing pretty well for the past five years and actually it's one bright spot [in the global economy],' said Mr Wen, who has been in charge of the economy since 2003. 'If that's the case, then to label [our] macroeconomic controls as 'toothless' contradicts both fact and logic.'
Mr Wen's management of the world's fourth-largest economy has been a subject of heated debate. Overseas media and analysts have said his macroeconomic controls have been ineffective in cooling the sizzling economy and run the risk of damaging the mainland's long-term growth. There has even been speculation that Mr Wen has come under pressure to quit as premier at next year's annual meeting of the National People's Congress.
The 65-year-old premier, who retained his Politburo Standing Committee membership after the party's 17th National Congress last month, responded publicly to that speculation for the first time yesterday.