Chinese Premier Touts His Record

Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji offered a spirited defense of his job performance Friday, citing the country’s continued economic growth--especially through the Asian financial crisis--as his main achievement in the last four years.

Abandoning some of the self-deprecating modesty that has won him charm points in the past, Zhu told reporters that he has delivered on nearly all the promises he made in 1998, when he became China’s No. 3 leader.

Under his government, he said, China has kept its currency stable, turned around its faltering state sector, begun reforming its banks, streamlined its bureaucracy, overhauled its health-care system and met its goals in several other areas--a glowing litany of success that made many in his audience raise their eyebrows.

Although he acknowledged that there is “room for improvement” and that some tasks remain unfinished, Zhu said he has “a clear conscience.”

“On the whole,” he declared on live national television, “I’m satisfied with the progress.”

The pronouncement came during Zhu’s annual news conference at the close of China’s parliament, a yearly media event that affords one of the few opportunities here for unscripted exchanges between a high-ranking Chinese leader and domestic and international journalists.

The news conference was probably Zhu’s last as premier because a successor is slated to take over at this time next year.

Throughout the 70-minute question-and-answer session, Zhu’s comments often took on a valedictory tone, as if he were trying to set the seal on his legacy as premier, even though he has a year left on the job.

“This government has made good on its promise,” he said. Zhu added that he took special pride in having shepherded the Chinese economy through the Asian financial crisis and kept economic growth on track. So far this year, he said, the Chinese economy is up 7.6% compared with last year.

There has been speculation in recent months that Zhu, 73, might stay on for a second term despite his previous assertions of being old and ready to retire. At the news conference, however, he primly skirted questions asking whether he would hold on to his post.

“I have answered countless such questions in the past, and every time I answer, my answer gives rise to unjustifiable speculation,” Zhu said. He told the audience to “be patient--the answer will be out fairly soon.”

Although his scheduled term is almost over, the remaining 12 months could be crucial as Zhu guides his country through the first year of its entry into the World Trade Organization. Membership in the WTO, which will eliminate many of the protective barriers that shielded Chinese businesses in the past, is expected to throw millions of urbanites and farmers out of work. Protests by the economically disaffected in China are already widespread.

Zhu said that his “biggest headache,” the issue that nags at him most, is how to boost the income of China’s 800 million farmers, who have not shared equally in the nation’s rising wealth.

Although many residents of China’s cities have prospered, farmers have seen their incomes flatten or even drop. The gap between China’s rich and poor has widened to what some experts fear is a dangerous extent, and it could worsen under WTO obligations.

“There’s no easy solution,” Zhu said. “The fundamental way out is to restructure China’s agriculture because right now we’re suffering from a glut of grain and other agricultural products.”

In addition, the government plans to cut rural taxes and tap into its 550-billion-pound grain reserve in order to ease the burden on farmers, which Zhu called the “central task of this government.”

Zhu’s image as a champion of the common person and his no-nonsense manner have made him China’s most popular national leader. Although in reality troubles beset all the reforms he ticked off as underway or completed--in the banking sector, for example, and in the realm of social security--many Chinese regard Zhu as an honest politician amid a sea of crooked officials out to fatten their own wallets.

His annual news conferences, too, are eagerly anticipated by journalists weary of constant rehashing of Communist-speak. In 1998, at his first media appearance as premier, the Beijing press corps was wowed by Zhu’s from-the-hip style, especially in contrast to his predecessor, Li Peng, widely regarded as a party parrot.

Flashes of Zhu’s trademark humor were in evidence Friday. When a reporter asked what his biggest headache was, Zhu’s first response was, “To be honest, I suffer from headaches all day long.”

He also took issue with a description of him in a Hong Kong newspaper as a short-tempered man who banged on tables and benches and tried to stare down opponents.

“It’s true I’ve banged on tables; it’s true I’ve stared at people. If you can’t stare, aren’t you just a vegetable? But I’ve absolutely never banged on benches, because that would’ve really hurt,” he said.

“And I don’t think anybody would buy the story that I did this to scare ordinary people. I’ve never intimidated ordinary citizens--just greedy, corrupt officials, thank you.”