Wen's Voice Cut Off

China's Premier Wen Jiabao was giving an opening remark at the EU-China summit in Brussels. After a long list of achievements reached in his ten years tenure as China's premier, Wen stressed his disappointment over two issues: lifting arms embargo and nonrecognition of fully-fledged market economy status. While Wen was still speaking, the live feed was cut abruptly before he could finish the sentence.

A diplomat who attended the meeting said the request came from China.

It's interesting to learn someone in the Chinese delegation could order speech of Wen, the Prime Minister and No. 3 in CCP, to be cut off. It's also interesting to speculate how did the organizer recognize and accommodate the request to mute the top Chinese official at the meeting.

As the lonely minority among his peers, Wen was always muted on sensitive talks in China. Wen also use his oversea trips to talk about his visions on political reform.

Professor Tian Xie of University of South Carolina Aiken commented that Wen probably wanted to use his last EU-China summit to advocate for importance and urgency of political reforms. The two issues would have been a good talk point for that.

Scholars Warn Collapse May be Sudden and Unforeseeable

Premier Wen has been chanting for political reform in an unusual high intensity. He publicly spoke about the sensitive issue 6 times in 3 months, and used phrases such as, '.. dead end', and '..won't give up until my last breath'. By all means, he sounds not only deadly serious, but also alarmingly urgent.

Finally, the ruling communist party responded with an editorial of the People's Daily. The article titled '..steadily push forward political reform', while the contents basically removed any doubts that such reform could be remotely possible under the Party's rule. It insisted the Party's firm leadership is absolutely essential, and threatened any political reform to be unpatriotic.

Scholars liken the situation to that at the end of the Qing Dynasty. While the people, echoed by some senior officials, demand political reform, the imperial government blandly refused. A couple of years later, Qing collapsed suddenly in 1911. Since 1840, the Qing had survived western invasion and mass rebellion. When it collapsed in 1911, it was enjoying a rather uneventful period.

Premier Wen's Political Reform

Premier Wen Jiabao told CNN when attending conferences in New York City that he would keep pushing for political reform, and weather any stormy resistances till his death.

Although Wen is known of using elegance of Chinese classics, he summarized his goals in four simple phrases: he wants Chinese people could

1. live in dignity and be happy;
   
2. feel safe;
   
3. a society fill with justice;
   
4. full of confidence to the future;
   

Among all Communists officials, 80 millions of them, Wen looks to be a lonely advocate to his ideas. Many accused him of not having acted more boldly, but there is so much you can do as one of the 80 millions leadership class. Instead of criticizing wen's inaction, each Chinese should think of how to help out.