Quartz 4

CHINESE PREMIER SPEAKS

5 min read

Source:

Wen JiaBao
From CNN

Body:

In my conversation with Wen Jiabao, China’s premier, one of the most complex and controversial subjects was the discussion of democracy.

Wen has deep experience with the issue. in 1989 he was one of the Communist Party officials who went to Tiananmen Square to talk to the
protesters. I asked him whether that experience had made him want to slow down or stop political reform. Listen to what he had to say:

I will take advantage of your kindness and ask a question that many people around the world wonder about.

there is a very famous photograph of you at Tiananmen Square in 1989.

What lesson did you take from your experiences in dealing with that problem in 1989?

I believe that while moving ahead with the economic reforms we also need to advance1 political reforms. As our development is comprehensive in nature, our reform should also be comprehensive.

I think the call of your question is about the development of democracy in China.

I believe when it comes to2 the development of democracy in China, we will talk about progress to be made3 in three areas.

  • Number one: we need to gradually improve the democratic election system so that the state power will truly belong to the people and state power will be used to serve the people.

  • Number two: We need to improve the legal system, run the country according to law and establish the country under the rule of law and we need to view an independent and just4 judicial system.

  • Number three: government should be subject to oversight by the people and that will ask us, call on us to increase transparency in government affairs, and particularly it is also necessary for government to accept oversight by the news media and other parties.

When I go to China and I’m in the hotel and if I type in the words Tiananmen Square in like in my computer. I get a firewall, what some people call the Great Firewall of China. Can you be an advanced society if you don’t have freedom of information to find out information on the internet.

China has now over 200 million Internet users and the freedom of Internet in China is recognized by many even from the West, nonetheless, to uphold State Security, China like many countries in the world has also imposed some proper restrictions and that is for the safety. That is for the overall safety of the country and for the freedom of the majority of the people.

I can also tell you on the Internet in China and you can have access to a lot of postings that are not critical5 about the government. I frequently browse the Internet.

What are your favorite sites? I browsed a lot of internet websites?

May I ask you about another set of possible talks? the Dalai Lama has said now it appears that he would accept China’s rule in Tibet, he accepts the socialist system in Tibet and what he asks for is cultural autonomy and a certain degree6 of political autonomy. The talks apparently are stuck at a lower level between the Tibetans and the Chinese government.

Why don’t you give your power and your negotiating7 skills. take8 the issue yourself9 and you or president Hu Jintao were to negotiate directly with the Dalai Lama and solve this issue once and for all for the benefit of the Chinese people and of course the Tibetan people who are also in China.

In many places all over the world Dalai Lama keeps preaching about the idea of the so-called autonomy in the greater Tibetan region10.

And actually the so-called autonomy that he pursues is actually to use religion to intervene in politics. And they want to separate the so-called Tibetan region from the motherland. And many people in the United States have no idea how big is the so-called greater Tibetan region. The so-called greater Tibetan region preached by the Dalai Lama actually covers Tibet, Sichuan, Yunnan Qhinghai, Gansu altogether five provinces and the area covered by the so-called greater Tibetan region accounts for a quarter of China’s territories.

For decades our policy towards the Dalai Lama remains unchanged.

That is as long as the Dalai Lama is willing to recognize that the Tibet inalienable part of China’s territory and as long as the Dalai Lama gives up his separatist activities, we were willing to have contact and talks with him or his representatives.

Footnotes

  1. if knowledge, technology, etc. advances, it develops and improves ↩

  2. The phrase when it comes to is used to identify the specific topic that is being talked about. ↩

  3. 后置定语 ↩

  4. 这里just作形容词, that most people consider to be morally fair and reasonable 公正的；正义的；正当的；合理的 a just decision/law/society公正的判决／法律／社会 ↩

  5. if you are critical, you criticize someone or something 批评的，批判的: ↩

  6. Her job demands a high degree of skill. 她的工作要求有高超的技能。(demand=need) ↩

  7. negotiate, 现在分词作前置定语 ↩

  8. to react to sth/sb in a particular way 对待 ↩

  9. 同位语 ↩

  10. 定语 ↩

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