There are no surveys of public opinion regarding China’s leaders. But it’s safe to say that following the May 12 earthquake, both President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao are riding high.
Both spent time down in Sichuan Province, touring the damaged zone and talking with ordinary people.
So here’s the evidence of how “cool” Premier Wen has become. He’s set up a Facebook page. Not. Okay, okay. Someone did it as a prank, but it’s still pretty amusing. I first saw this on Travellers’ Tales, the always-amusing column on the Far Eastern Economic Review website.
You mean there are no "public" surveys of public opinion about Hu and Wen!
There are surveys done discretely by.... the government, I bet.
While in the span of Chinese history, it is way too early to make a judgment...
Remember Zhou En-Lai's reply when he was asked about what he thought of the French Revolution? His reply, "It is too early to tell."
Hu and Wen are shaping up to be the best leaders China has produced since Deng Xiao-Ping.
Wen has an ability to "connect" with the people like Bill Clinton once had.
I would hate to see free elections in China with these two... it might produce something like a 99.999% vote in favor of them.
Nobody outside of China would believe that it is a free election with that kind of a landslide!!!!
Posted by: A B | May 27, 2008 at 07:41 AM
Senor A B, you're in luck. It turns out the communist party would also hate to see free elections. And yes, they would certainly get 100 per cent votes. We all saw what happened to Yang Chunlin, when he wrote, "human rights are more important than the olympics." He got five years. Shi Tao is in a dungeon for ten years, for daring to write about tianamen. Hu Jia? # 1/2 years for.....you guessed it. Criticizing the government. All power to the people, eh?
Posted by: Wilbur Varela | May 27, 2008 at 03:22 PM
We saw a guy with a bullhorn standing on top of demolished rubble here in the US, also. President Bush, shouting encouragements. And look how that turned out.
Posted by: Wilbur Varela | May 27, 2008 at 03:31 PM
One thing we all can agree on, our hearts go out to the suffering earthquake victims, and to their families, in their hour of agony. It hurts to see such suffering. my wife cried watching the news. I know the hardworking and resilient chinese people will rise, stonger than before. And hopefully, one day, they will be able to freely elect their leaders, like their brothers in Taiwan. Peace to all.
Posted by: Wilbur Varela | May 27, 2008 at 03:35 PM
Wilbur Varela
As far as I know, those who were arrested criticizing Chinese Government are often people who accepted funds from foreign NGOs, or have connections with foreign NGOs. So what many foreign NGOs did are actually hindering the advancement of democracy and freedom inside China. For foreign NGOs, if they are really concerned about human rights, democracy and freedom in China, raise your voices and stop making direct contacts with right activists.
Posted by: jeff | May 27, 2008 at 09:52 PM
jeff,
You are playing piano to a water buffalo.
Posted by: A B | May 27, 2008 at 10:18 PM
@Señor Varela
Thank you for your kind heart for China's quake victims and your concerns for her future.
Chinese people are resilient. They had to be, as historically they'd suffered a great deal from both natural and man-made disasters, not least of which were the results of certain idealistic cool-aids that were imported from the West. So people tend to view all of these wonderful ideological catchphrases with great suspicion and indifference.
And don't think free election can be the cure-all for China's problems. Am I the only one to notice that the US and Taiwan, the models of democracy for China in your mind, happened to freely elect their respective jokers to govern in two consecutive terms during the same period of time.
What a wonderful world we're living in.
Posted by: PaZhuLian | May 27, 2008 at 10:38 PM