PM vs Nobel Laureate
By Claude Arpi
Who is China's First Dissident? Many China observers believe that it is not Lui Xiabao who was recently awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, but the Prime Minister (or Premier in Communist jargon) of the country, Wen Jiabao who will be visiting India between December 15 and 17.
Why?
During the last few months, Wen has spoken on several occasions on the same theme as the Nobel Laureate; he ended up being censured by the ''authorities'' of his own country.
Take his visit to the United States in September. Wen Jiabao was interviewed by Fareed Zakaria for CNN's Global Public Square.
The NRI journalist asked him about an article that Wen had written on Hu Yaobang, the most liberal Chinese leader after the Communist take-over of China in 1949, "You wrote an article about your old boss, Hu Yaobang. In it, you praise him. Do you think in retrospect that Hu Yaobang was a very good leader of China?"
Wen immediately answered: "Yes, I think I have given a fair assessment of the history of this person. He made his own contributions to China's reform and opening up."
Then Zakaria asked Wen about freedom of speech in China, the suave Premier, known as 'Grandpa Wen' in the Middle Kingdom, replied: "I believe freedom of speech is indispensable, for any country, a country in the course of development and a country that has become strong. Freedom of speech has been incorporated into the Chinese constitution.''
He then continued in the same vein: ''I often say that we should not only let people have the freedom of speech, we more importantly must create conditions to let them criticise the work of the government."
When Lui Xiaobo had said the same thing, he was jailed for 11 years. Well, it might be the prerogative of the Premier of the State Council to not be jailed but only censured. Ironically, it is the same State Council which sentenced Lui.
Image: In this photograph taken on October 30, 2010, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao hold hands on stage for a photo opportunity as part of the 5th East Asia Summit in Hanoi on October 30, 2010. (Photograph copyright AFP)
