Wen, in quake visits, highlights Chinese style of premiership

Source: Xinhua | 05-23-2008 10:07

by Xinhua writer Fu Shuangqi

MIANYANG, Sichuan, May 22 (Xinhua) -- Ten days after the devastating earthquake in southwest China, six days after he returned to Beijing, Premier Wen Jiabao was back on the front lines of quake relief.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao gazes at the quake- devastated Beichuan town, in southwest China's Sichuan Province, on May 22, 2008. Wen Jiabao made his second trip to the quake-battered zone on Thursday afternoon to oversee disaster relief work. (Xinhua/Yao Dawei)

He flew to Mianyang in Sichuan Province, one of the worst hit cities, on Thursday afternoon. Upon arrival, he conducted a fly-over inspection by helicopter of a "quake lake," which is formed by landslides that block rivers.

People would have found him on the same tight schedule early this year as Wen visited the regions hit by the worst winter weather in 50 years four times in nine days.

The Hong Kong-based daily Ta Kung Pao said in a commentary: "Chinese premiers have developed an image of being caring and conscientious since late Zhou Enlai, the first premier of the People's Republic of China."

When a 6.8-magnitude earthquake rocked Xingtai, in the northern Hebei Province in 1966, Zhou rushed to the region and oversaw relief work, risking aftershocks, Du Xiuxian, a photographer of Zhou's era, recalled in his published photographic memoir "The Last Legends."

Wen has inherited that tradition of Chinese premiership.