Chinese Premier Wen Jinbao Chats Online

The Premier of China, Wen Jinbao, spent some time online answering questions in a moderated chat on Saturday. According to Yahoo, he faced questions as trivial as how much alcohol he was allowed to drink, serious questions like how China was going to deal with the global economic crisis, to the weird like how he handled a shoe-throwing protester in England.

Wen's online chat to the people of China was his first, and comes after President Hu Jintao fielded questions on the Internet in June last year. Wen has tried to forge a reputation as a man of the people, contrasting with his publicly much more staid and stern colleagues in the ruling Communist Party hierarchy.

It would've been nice to see a transcript of the chat.

I'm sure there will be one, after they write it to fit their message. Well, that and bury those that toed the line too closely.

^^^ lol but might be true!

Originally Posted by Cyrilix

It would've been nice to see a transcript of the chat.

It's not exactly a transcript, but here are some of the key points he discussed. Premier Wen is a good man and is highly thought of by Chinese citizens, so there's no need for any rancor directed towards him.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/20...t_10916548.htm

lol, yeah, there's no need for any criticism, he's a "good man".








Do you work for the Chinese government too?

That question regarding how much alcohol he drinks makes me think of my wife's cousins who live in southern China who we visited one time. They own and work a farm and are basically hillbillies. In other words good hardworking people. They make their own "moonshine" and gave me some after dinner. I don't drink much now a days but I've done my fair share back in the day but this moonshine knocked me on my ass. Good stuff.

This one quote makes me shiver.

He warned that the global economic crisis had not yet hit bottom...

Originally Posted by w1retap

...Do you work for the Chinese government too?

Nope! I just believe in being fair with people. Here in China, if it is unsafe to talk about something/someone, it's never mentioned. But if that something/someone is highly regarded they are often spoken of. Mr. Wen is just such a topic here in China. And there isn't a soul who can point a finger at him and say he got someone killed for not toeing the 'Party' line. He is a good man, and it is unfair (dare I say un-American?) to accuse and convict a guy without proper proof, whether in a court of a law or in the court of public opinion.

That Chinese internet filter must be working overtime.

Interesting to note that I didn't name anyone specific, but you read all kinds of comments into my one-liner. So like all good people, you have some not so good people take the low road for you (ever seen The Godfather? Goodfellas?), so that you can continue to operate in plausable deniability. Who was blocking some internet addresses during the Olympics? Who was rounding up the folks that used to live downtown Beijing so that the areas not to be proud of weren't exposed to the western world? Who substituted a singer for a Milli Vanilli that was 'better looking'? And this was just for a sporting event. What other good things are a result of events of more importance?

Originally Posted by Pepsiennis

It's not exactly a transcript, but here are some of the key points he discussed. Premier Wen is a good man and is highly thought of by Chinese citizens, so there's no need for any rancor directed towards him.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/20...t_10916548.htm

Awesome! That's a lot of coverage. Thanks for the link.