psycho_mushy
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Wen: Too soon for China democracy
BOSTON, United States (AP) -- China's new premier says that while his country's leaders want democracy, the conditions are not yet right for contested elections for senior officials.
"There's no question that to develop democracy is the objective of our endeavor," Wen Jiabao said in a talk at Harvard Business School. "All our efforts will be aimed at building China into a prosperous democratic, modern civilized country."
Direct elections are held for village-level officials in 680,000 villages throughout China, Wen said, but "conditions are not right yet for direct election of senior officials."
"China is such a big country and our economic development is so uneven. To start with, I think the education level of the population is not high enough," Wen said through a translator.
"We should let the people supervise the work of the government and be critical of the performance of the government," Wen said.
The Chinese premier began a four-day visit to the United States on Sunday, traveling to New York and then on to Washington, where he met President George W. Bush.
It was the first visit by a member of the new group of Chinese leaders who took power in the past year, and comes amid tensions about the U.S. trade deficit with China -- projected at $120 billion for this year -- which would be the largest with any country.
Wen said the answer to the U.S. trade deficit with China was for the United States to export more goods to China, rather than for Chinese imports to be reduced.
The premier said he told Bush during a meeting Tuesday that "we should not turn economic and trade issues into political ones."
Tibetan protest
His upbeat 90 minute appearance at Harvard Business School was greeted warmly by about 800 students and faculty. His remarks were briefly interrupted, however, by a woman who stood up to call for Tibetan independence.
Wen interrupted his speech, saying: "I will not be disrupted because I am deeply convinced that the 300 million American people do have friendly feelings" towards China. The crowd erupted in applause and the protester was led away without further incident.
Wen said it would be a "time-consuming process to develop China's democracy perfectly."
"So we need to work to improve the living standards of 1.3 billion Chinese people," he said. "This is a big challenge ahead."
Wen said China's human rights situation was not "impeccable," but the country was making progress, adding that the country's development was interlinked with progress on human rights.
"China's reform and opening-up aims at promoting human rights," he said. "The two are mutally dependent and reinforcing. Reform and opening-up creates conditions for the advancement of human rights and the latter invigorates the former."
I know China as communist as it is, is experimenting with democracy in the rural towns... which is good to hear. But what captures me is the fact that Wen said that rural thingo would be easier to try out then into the urban areas. The ppl from urban china (east coast) are far more educated than ppl from the friggin rural areas.. does this guy know what he's talking about?!?!?
Hong Kong is a democracy, well due majority it still is... (good ol' hong kong) and its heaps better in terms of reputation than the whole of china, which is like 100 times bigger.
hmmm... what are you ppl' thoughts?
BOSTON, United States (AP) -- China's new premier says that while his country's leaders want democracy, the conditions are not yet right for contested elections for senior officials.
"There's no question that to develop democracy is the objective of our endeavor," Wen Jiabao said in a talk at Harvard Business School. "All our efforts will be aimed at building China into a prosperous democratic, modern civilized country."
Direct elections are held for village-level officials in 680,000 villages throughout China, Wen said, but "conditions are not right yet for direct election of senior officials."
"China is such a big country and our economic development is so uneven. To start with, I think the education level of the population is not high enough," Wen said through a translator.
"We should let the people supervise the work of the government and be critical of the performance of the government," Wen said.
The Chinese premier began a four-day visit to the United States on Sunday, traveling to New York and then on to Washington, where he met President George W. Bush.
It was the first visit by a member of the new group of Chinese leaders who took power in the past year, and comes amid tensions about the U.S. trade deficit with China -- projected at $120 billion for this year -- which would be the largest with any country.
Wen said the answer to the U.S. trade deficit with China was for the United States to export more goods to China, rather than for Chinese imports to be reduced.
The premier said he told Bush during a meeting Tuesday that "we should not turn economic and trade issues into political ones."
Tibetan protest
His upbeat 90 minute appearance at Harvard Business School was greeted warmly by about 800 students and faculty. His remarks were briefly interrupted, however, by a woman who stood up to call for Tibetan independence.
Wen interrupted his speech, saying: "I will not be disrupted because I am deeply convinced that the 300 million American people do have friendly feelings" towards China. The crowd erupted in applause and the protester was led away without further incident.
Wen said it would be a "time-consuming process to develop China's democracy perfectly."
"So we need to work to improve the living standards of 1.3 billion Chinese people," he said. "This is a big challenge ahead."
Wen said China's human rights situation was not "impeccable," but the country was making progress, adding that the country's development was interlinked with progress on human rights.
"China's reform and opening-up aims at promoting human rights," he said. "The two are mutally dependent and reinforcing. Reform and opening-up creates conditions for the advancement of human rights and the latter invigorates the former."
I know China as communist as it is, is experimenting with democracy in the rural towns... which is good to hear. But what captures me is the fact that Wen said that rural thingo would be easier to try out then into the urban areas. The ppl from urban china (east coast) are far more educated than ppl from the friggin rural areas.. does this guy know what he's talking about?!?!?
Hong Kong is a democracy, well due majority it still is... (good ol' hong kong) and its heaps better in terms of reputation than the whole of china, which is like 100 times bigger.
hmmm... what are you ppl' thoughts?
*jks TIB 
