SUN WUKONG Feel the warmth
By Wu Zhong, China Editor
HONG KONG - It seems Mother Nature always wants to test the crisis-handling
capability of Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao.
In early 2003, shortly after Hu and Wen formally took over the country to
become the so-called fourth-generation communist leaders, China was hit by an
outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) .
This year, before the lunar new year holiday, the worst snowstorms in 50 years
devastated south and east China for two weeks, disrupting transportation and
power supply in many
provinces. This time, the crisis occurred three months after Hu was re-endorsed
as the "core" of the fourth-generation leadership in the 17th National Congress
of the Chinese Communist Party, and about one month before Wen is to be
reappointed by the National People's Congress as the premier to head a new
cabinet for the next five years.
Thus, coincidentally, these crises appeared to offer timely opportunities for
Hu and Wen to demonstrate their capability and win popularity with their
"people first" approach at a time when they start their new office.
Dealing with the crisis of the SARS outbreak gave the first opportunity for Hu
and Wen to show their personal characters and new work style. When the
mysterious disease initially broke out, Chinese bureaucrats made every effort
to cover it up, following the decades-old communist tradition of treating such
an epidemic as a "state secret". The cover-up made it impossible for the
infectious disease to be contained and for patients to be treated properly.
However, Hu and Wen made a 180-degree departure from tradition. International
practices in dealing with an epidemic outbreak were adopted and information was
eventually released in time. Officials trying to cover up the outbreak were
sacked, including senior ones like the newly-appointed health minister, Zhang
Wenkang, and Beijing mayor Meng Xuenong. At the same time, Hu and Wen made
frequent visits to schools, factories and hospitals to help ease public fears.
All this won them great popularity among the Chinese people, who began to call
the president "Older Brother Hu" and Wen "the people's premier".
"A good beginning makes a good ending." The popularity Hu and Wen gained by
dealing with the SARS outbreak at the beginning of their first five-year term
has made their rule easier.
Now, at the beginning of their second five-year term, the Hu-Wen leadership
faced another crisis - the snowstorms. Their handling of the crisis may boost
their popularity again, though in the beginning there were complaints among the
public about the chaos and inaction of the central government.
China's busiest season of passenger transportation normally begins two weeks
before the spring festival, or lunar new year day, as tens of millions of
people rush home for family reunions. So this year, the spring festival season
officially kicked off on January 23, just as the snowstorms began to hit the
country.
The snow caught everyone, including the Chinese leaders, by surprise, not
because they were the worst in 50 years, but because they mostly hit the south
and east of the country. Normally, only northern China has major snow storms.
So few people took it seriously when the snow began to fall as everybody
thought it would pass quickly. For this, China's government-run weather
stations should take the blame, or at least partial blame as the the snow
storms were extraordinarily heavy and lasted for days. Power networks were
damaged, paralyzing electrical-powered railway transportation, and highways
became impassable with stalled vehicles stranding millions of travelers.
The government reaction was slow and the weakness of China's bureaucratic
system in dealing with an ongoing crisis was exposed. The power grid is run by
the state power company and the railways by the Ministry of Railway, while
sections of express highways are constructed and operated by different regions.
A crisis like this needs to be coordinated by Beijing's power center.
Nearly a week after the first snowfall, the Politburo convened an emergency
meeting in Beijing on January 29, presided over by Hu. It worked out measures
to deal with the crisis and demanded that all regional governments spare no
efforts and cost to battle the disaster. People's Liberation Army (PLA) troops
were also mobilized.
After the meeting, Hu made an inspection trip to coal mines, appealing for the
production of more coal to ease shortages of power plants. Wen made shuttle
trips between affected places. He apologized to stranded travelers for the
delay of their trips, promising them full transportation as soon as possible so
they could reach home before the spring festival. His words were helpful in
easing the growing anger of stranded travelers.
With the decision of the Politburo and the examples set by Hu and Wen, various
central government departments and regional governments began to devote their
efforts to handling the crisis.
Overnight, 3 million PLA soldiers and militia appeared on highways to remove
snow and ice on highways. "Such a scene can only be seen in our country," a
vice minister of public security boasted. This perhaps was true, but it was
also a bit late. If the military had been mobilized a few days earlier, the
whole situation might not have been so chaotic.
For instance, about 600,000 travelers, mostly rural migrant workers eager to go
home, were stuck at the railway station in Guangzhou, the provincial capital of
China's southern Guangdong province. To help disperse the impatient and
complaining crowds, the Guangdong provincial government issued a notice trying
to persuade the frustrated travelers to stay and spend the festival in
Guangdong. It offered free transport to take them to their work places and some
Guangdong travel agencies offered them discount packages for sight-seeing tours
in the province.
However, at about the same time, a spokesman of the Ministry of Railway said in
Beijing that rail transportation was recovering quickly and promised to send
everybody home in a few days. The message immediately inspired more migrant
workers to rush to the Guangzhou station, where in the chaos one girl was
crushed to death.
Despite such problems, a week after the Politburo meeting on January 29 power
supplies and transportation were restored, and most stranded travelers were
able to get home in time for the festival.
And in dealing with the crisis, Hu and Wen once again narrowed the distance
between them and ordinary people, with their do-it-yourself style. For the
fifth consecutive year, both spent the spring festival with workers or farmers,
rather than with their own families. On the Internet, Wen was voted by Chinese
netizens as one of the four "good premiers" since 1949, the other three being
Zhou Enlai, Zhao Ziyang and Zhu Rongji. (It wasn't much of a contest, however,
as China has only had six premiers since 1949 - the others being Li Peng
and Hua Guofeng.)
Surely, Hu and Wen's continued popularity will help their rule for the next
five years. However, snow melts and people will also have higher expectations
for their second terms, especially when it comes to keeping China's economy
going so national incomes increase, while also curbing inflationary trends.
That remains a bigger challenge for Hu and Wen.
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