Premier Wen Jiabao gives his government mixed marks in work report

Outgoing Premier Wen Jiabao gave his administration mixed marks when reviewing his work over the past five years yesterday in his last annual government work report. He bowed three times after delivering it.

While most deputies at the opening of the annual session of the National People's Congress in Beijing praised the retiring leader, the public, and especially internet users and microbloggers, were more critical, with some ridiculing the premier's self-assessment.

NPC deputy Han Kang, associate dean of the National School of Administration, said: "I feel Premier Wen has done an outstanding job, as he has made such achievements amid a very bad international environment."

Wen frankly acknowledged 11 failures, the most prominent and frequently criticised being a growing wealth gap, the deteriorating environment, an unbalanced economic structure, unsustainable growth and increasingly rampant corruption among officials.

"Social problems have increased markedly, and many problems in the areas of education, employment, social security, medical care, housing, the environment, food and drug safety, workplace safety and public order affect people's vital interests," the report said.

One blogger ridiculed Wen, saying he spent 50 minutes dwelling on his achievements, but less than three minutes on his "inadequacies".

The bulk of the report, which was much thinner than Wen's previous ones, highlighted his achievements in exceeding numerous targets that he set for his administration.