Changing China

That’s right, Grandpa Wen!!

China’s propaganda machine and Internet are once again agog over Premier Wen Jiabao, whose public comforting of Chinese earthquake victims last year cemented his reputation for having a common touch.

China’s Communist Party rarely admits mistakes, but Wen got kudos for facing up to his.

Wen, a trained geologist, mixed up his rock types while giving feedback to a Beijing middle school teacher, who had failed to encourage a student while Wen was sitting in on some classes this weekend.

Xinhua included the mistake when quoting his remarks.

Wen corrected the error and issued a public apology via Xinhua — giving new meaning to the term “official correction.”

But even the apology was not without some spin. The Beijing News said an alert reader had noticed  the error and alerted Xinhua, but the subsequent article by the state news agency said Wen himself had spotted the flub.

File photo: REUTERS/Jason Lee

Grandpa Wen, so happy to see you!

North Korea knows how to put on a show for honoured guests. Visiting Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao was this week treated to a special performance of the “Arirang” mass games, the world’s biggest choreographed extravaganza with as many as 100,000 participants.

Part circus act, part rhythmic gymnastics, the display features dancing girls, goose-stepping soldiers and a massive flip-card section animated by ranks of performers, which this time included one-off Chinese messages added for Wen.

But in the time honoured tradition of opaque Communist regimes, the slogans were likely meant as more than just a simple part of celebrations, and certainly suggested that the isolated regime keeps a very close eye on political developments in the northern neighbour that is one of its few allies.

In almost flawless Chinese they spelt out a giant welcome message that acknowledged their visitor’s populist reputation in China: “Grandpa Wen, so happy to see you!” — which may have been as heartfelt as it was enormous, given there is hardly a steady stream of top international leaders beating a path to the door of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. 

This was matched with a string of more formal tributes to President Hu Jintao, whose official place in the pantheon of China’s top communist leaders (along with national icons Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping) was cemented at massive national day celebrations in Beijing on Oct 1.

“Build a harmonious socialist society,” might not sound like a rousing paean, but in fact it is one of Hu’s key slogans, part of a campaign to make the country’s growth more equal after decades of frenzied development. There was also a stodgy but politically impeccable homage to Hu’s role as general secretary of the Communist Party of China, and a nod to one of his other key rallying calls, for a “people-centred concept of scientific development.”

When he touched down in Pyongyang earlier this week, Wen became the first Chinese premier to visit North Korea since 1991, according to Beijing, and he arrived at a time when the secretive regime, shunned internationally for its nuclear weapons programme, is struggling economically in the face of a recent round of tighter sanctions.

from India Insight:

India, China take a measure of each other at border row talks

China and India are sitting down for another round of talks this week on their unsettled border, a nearly 50-year festering row that in recent months seems to have gotten worse.

China's Vice Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo and India's National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan are unlikely to announce any agreement on the 3,500 km border, even a small one, but their talks this week may well signal how they intend to move forward on a relationship marked by a  deep, deep "trust deficit", as former Indian intelligence chief B. Raman puts it.

While the entire Himalayan border is disputed, including the Aksai Chin area, it is the row over large parts of India's Arunachal Pradesh in the eastern stretch of the mountains that has strained ties in recent months.

The Chinese, says Raman,  are demanding that at least the Tawang tract of Arunachal Pradesh, if not the whole of it, should be transferred to it.  They are apparently adamant that if that doesn't happen, there won't be any border settlement, he says.

India's position is that there can't be a transfer of populated areas in any border settlement. Tawang is a populated area, its citizens are Indians, New Delhi says.

So firmly have the Chinese dug their heels in, that they refused to endorse an Asian Development Bank  irrigation project in Arunachal Pradesh in June on grounds that it was its territory. Last month, India's Foreign Minister S. M. Krishna confirmed to parliament in a question-answer session media reports about the Chinese objection to the project which appeared to have stung India.

Runaway success of China’s parliament

   By Emma Graham-Harrison

   Even US President Barack Obama on his post-election high could only dream of popularity like this. Delegates streaming out of the opening session of China’s Parliament on Thursday morning were pretty much unanimous in praising their leaders’ talent and inspiration.       “The government has very good policies.”       “The Premier’s policies were right on the mark.”       “They laid out all the policies we will need.”       This is just a sampling of the glowing reviews Premier Wen Jiabao got for his annual report to Parliament, which he reads out word-for-exact-printed word for more than two hours.       Delegates are supposed to follow on their own copies, although many of them appear to nod off — maybe into dreams of the “harmonious society,” which the Chinese Communist Party is trying to build.       The only delegate who told Reuters he wasn’t entranced didn’t blame the premier either.       “Actually my Chinese isn’t so good so I find it a bit boring,” said a Tibetan “living Buddha”, sipping tea outside the main hall in monks’ robes that photographers swarmed to snap.       But many of the thousands of “people’s representatives” crammed into the cavernous Great Hall of the People shied away from media like sensitive locals on the streets of Tibet.       “Just call me Mr Yang. Thank you, thank you,” said one trim, middle-aged delegate who wouldn’t say who he was representing either. I had to listen back to my tape to check whether I’d missed some dangerously seditious thoughts. But he was just quoting back from the report.       “The most important thing for overcoming the crisis is stimumlating domestic demand, increasing investment,” he mumbled.

    The next delegate I approached picked up his pace, and when I picked up mine to match, he broke into a shuffling semi-jog across the marble floor to escape my questioning.       I left my runaway to look for a delegate willing to do anything other than gush about the speech’s succcess, but I finally went back to the office empty-handed.

Photo caption: Delegates to the National People’s Congress reading text, following along as Premier Wen Jiabao reads speech at the opening session of the annual meeting of parliament. REUTERS/Christina Hu

No new stimulus? Buy!

Global markets surged on Wednesday, led by the Shanghai stock market’s 6.1 percent gain, on hopes that Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao would announce a new stimulus on top of the 4 trillion yuan ($585 billion) two-year spending plan unveiled in November.

Investors were optimistic that with a bit help from the central government, the economy could turn the corner and start to regain lost ground, heading off a rise in unemployment that officials fear could threaten social stability.

But in his 2-hour report to the annual meeting of parliament, Wen made no mention of the much hoped-for injection.

No matter. Speculators and investors poured back into China’s share market on Thursday, grasping new reasons to be upbeat, and pushing up the index another 1.04 percent.

Wen’s speech was positive enough to support hopes that an economic recovery was starting. He set an ambitious target of 5 trillion yuan in new lending this year, and insisted this year’s 8 percent economic growth target would be met.

Will that be enough to keep investors’ momentum going? Here’s a link to Reuters coverage of the speech and its impact:

Photo captions: Premier Wen Jiabao delivers speech during the opening ceremony of the National People’s Congress at the Great Hall of the People, REUTERS/Jason Lee