Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Yu Jie on Chinese Premier: "Inside and Outside not Same, Words and Actions Not the Same"

Further to my pprevious posting (http://charlesburton.blogspot.com/2010/08/new-book-exposes-chinese-leadership.html) I have been reading some interesting Chinese commentary on Yu Jie's new book about Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (see http://www.malaysia-chinese.com/cgi-bin/czread.pl?board=luntan&file=start&read=messages/2010/08/43350.html).  What struck me in particular was the characterization of the Chinese leadership as 表里不一,言行不一 which means roughly "outside and inside not the same (i.e. accusing them of duplicity) and words and actions not the same".  This does strike me as a very subversive characterization.  It goes beyond the accusations of hypocrisy that Premier Wen promised to give justice to those families whose children died in schools built shoddily due to local officials' corruption and then the regime harassing and arresting the parents who pressed the point when nothing happened after the TV cameras were shut off and Wen had returned to Beijing and moved onto other things.  If the characterization of the Premier and the other senior members of the Chinese Politiburo as " Inside and Outside not Same, Words and Actions Not the Same" gained currency among the Chinese population at large, it could really pose a threat to the integrity of the current regime.  Certainly recent reports of Wen Jiabao's artfully expressed sympathy with the necessity for reform of China's political system: "People's democratic rights and legitimate rights must be guaranteed. People should be mobilized and organized to deal with, in accordance with the law, state, economic, social and cultural affairs"  (http://hken.ibtimes.com/articles/44547/20100822/china-premier-wen-calls-for-political-reform-report.htm) are not likely to lead to anything very much.  Chinese leaders have periodically made similar statements for almost 30 years now.  It tends to defuse political tension, as most Chinese people's memories of such commitments are evidently shorter than mine.  But for how much longer?  Wen will retire in 2013 but his successor may not be able get away from empty statements so readily.

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